


Of Now and Then

by BloomingSkyes264



Series: Blue Embers [1]
Category: Spyro the Dragon (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Coming Out, Hemiboy-Hemiagender Spyro the Dragon, Intersex Elora (Spyro), LGBTQ Themes, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Spyro the Dragon, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating May Change, Trans Male Character, Trans Spyro
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:15:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 34,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23301514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BloomingSkyes264/pseuds/BloomingSkyes264
Summary: Everyone is different in many ways, regardless of who it is. Some are ashamed while others embrace it.
Relationships: Elora & Hunter (Spyro), Elora & Krista (Spyro), Hunter & Spyro the Dragon, Nestor & Spyro the Dragon, Sparx & Spyro the Dragon
Series: Blue Embers [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1675732
Comments: 11
Kudos: 13





	1. The Early Years

The young, little dragon peaked into the library, seeing Nestor inside.

He took a deep breath, trying to exhale out every little bit of anxiety he might have inside. He knew he didn't have a reason to be anxious, but he couldn't help it. The little guy knew they wouldn't think of him differently at all. A while back, he had been pulled into a train of thought that made him wonder. After thinking about it, he knew what he was and what he wanted to be called from then on.

Spyro.

He just didn't know how to bring it up to any of the elders, more importantly to Nestor considering he was like a father to him. It wasn't something he heard of, so he didn't know if it was a thing at all or if it was common and he didn't realize it. Either way, he had to calm himself down. Nestor wouldn't think anything bad of it. Dragons were accepting overall, no matter where they lived, and no matter what. All he knew, at this moment, was that he didn't feel like a girl whatsoever.

For the past couple of weeks, he couldn't hear his 'name' without wanting to wince, curl up into a ball, or at times scream that it wasn't his name, that his name was something else. He didn't like how feminine his voice sounded. There was _lots_ he didn't like about himself and he wanted that to change, with or without their help. He shouldn't jump too far ahead yet, though, he had to take one step at a time. Now would be the time to take that step.

He started walking forward, getting closer to Nestor step by step. Once he got close enough, he sat down.

"Hey, uhh, Nestor?"

Nestor turned around and jumped when he saw Spyro. "Oh Salma, I didn't hear you come in!"

Hearing that made Spyro cringe. He tried to keep his composure, though.

"Can I ask you something, or are you, uhh, too busy?" Spyro asked.

"Of course you can!" Nestor picked Spyro up. "I always have a bit of time for my favorite little dragon! So what do you have on your mind, kiddo?"

"Is it possible to feel like you're something else when, uhh," Spyro scratched his neck, "you were born as something else?"

"Why of course it is! In fact some of the…" Nestor trailed off for a second before covering his mouth with one hand. "...Oh. Oh my goodness."

He put Spyro down and put his other hand on his side. His eyes widened as he looked at the younger dragon, who tilted his head. He might have realized what he was talking about.

"...Kid, I'm so sorry. Did I make you feel uncomfortable? I didn't mean to do so."

"Uncomfortable? A smidge. Upset?" Spyro shook his head. "Nah."

Nestor hugged Spyro. "I'm sorry about that."

"It's fine!"

"It's not." He pulled away from the hug. "What do you prefer to be called?"

"Spyro. That's my name now." Spyro said confidently, which caused Nestor to smile.

"I'll do whatever I can to support you," he put his hand onto his shoulders. "Spyro."

Spyro had the biggest smile a little dragon could have on their face. He couldn't express how he felt with words. Nestor picked him back up, this time on his back. The younger dragon adjusted himself to get more comfortable. His head rested on top of Nestor's. His purple tail waved back and forth.

"Hold on tight, okay? We're heading to Magic Crafters!"

"What for?"

"You'll see, Spyro."

Nestor walked outside of the library. His wings spread out, extending out as far as it could. He took off into the air, flying up high into the sky. Spyro looked below him. He always loved being high up like this. The sheep, every piece of grass sticking up, the flowers, just about everything looked tiny. It amazed the young dragon how everything could look so small from a distance. He could even see a few of the other dragon elders from up there.

Spyro lifted his head up and looked at the sky. It was starting to change from blue to a lilac. Snow showed up on parts of the ground and top of mountains ahead. Goat sheep ran around and about without a care in the world. Wooden bridges started entering his view as they got closer and closer. The change in scenery like that trapped his gaze and attention into a trance. It captured him enough where it only felt like nearly no time had passed.

Air fanned out towards all directions as Nestor landed onto the ground. Up ahead they could see Cosmos, who turned around then smiled upon seeing the two Artisans.

"Ah, Nestor!" Cosmos walked closer to them. "What brings you two here on a lovely day like this?"

"We're looking for Zantor. Do you happen to know where he is?"

Cosmos looked in a different direction then looked back at them. "I believe he's over that way." Cosmos pointed where he looked. "May I ask what this is about?"

"It's for little ol' Spyro here," Nestor looked up at Spyro.

Spyro just gave a big smile to him. Cosmos looked up at the young, smiling dragon straight in the eyes. He cupped Spyro's face, squishing his cheeks.

"We haven't had a young dragon like yourself in a long, long time." His smile became one of heartwarming as Cosmos removed his hands. "Come, I shall bring you to Zantor at once."

Cosmos started walking ahead. Nestor followed him; Spyro felt excited as he hung onto Nestor's back. They went into a short hallway made of stone that had torches on each side. When they got out of the other end, they saw some dragons younger than Spyro sitting on the ground while Zantor did some magic card tricks. A couple of other dragon elders stood near the lanky yellow dragon. They walked forward and awaited alongside the younger dragons.

Zantor had cards going from one hand to another, making the stack of cards bigger on his right hand. Once the final card landed on top, he clasped his hands together then separated the two. He showed both sides of his hands. The cards were nowhere to be seen. The dragons looked at each other in amazement, puzzled on where the cards could've disappeared to. Zantor only chuckled at their reactions.

His hands rose to the skies above, causing cards to rise from behind their horns, under their tails, and surprisingly even head spikes from the young audience. The dragons gasped, some looked at the areas where the cards manifested to see how they were even there with no success. Those very cards flew back to Zantor, circling around him as they glowed a cyan color. He bowed and all of the dragons clapped, especially a pink dragon with purple spikes standing up as she clapped though she soon fell back down afterwards.

Zantor looked at the audience before him before he realized that Nestor, Cosmos, and Spyro were there clapping as well.

"Oh what do you know, a couple of Artisans standing here right before our very eyes!" Zantor exclaimed, walking closer. "And my, how much you've grown! I hadn't seen you since you were just a baby dragon!"

He picked the purple dragon up off Nestor, raising him high up. Spyro's tail curled up inwards into his bright yellow underbelly. He slightly waved at the yellow magic user.

Zantor looked at Nestor. "So did you come here to visit?"

"No, but if he wants to we could stay here for a bit longer." Nestor answered.

He then looked back at Spyro, who was still staring at him. Zantor smiled as he put him down onto the ground. It seemed he had gotten exactly what he meant right away.

"Well if that's the case, then come with me. As you know, I work better in more open-spaced areas with _those_ kinds of spells!" He turned to the kids. "Don't worry, I'll be right back! There's just something I have to do first."

Zantor walked ahead while the others followed, Spyro being right behind him. Within a few minutes, they went into a large circular room. It had no objects, no shelves, absolutely nothing in the room but space. Spyro ran to the middle of the area, moving his head all around in curiosity. Left, right, up, and everywhere his head had turned to. Once he finished he looked back at the dragon elders who stayed by the doorway still.

He intensely stared at them.

"So what are we doing here?"

"Well, Spyro," Cosmos started, "this is where you can start your transition, and Zantor will be more than happy to help you with that."

Spyro smiled wide, feeling as thrilled as a kid on their birthday. He started to bounce in place as his wings spread out far.

Zantor stepped forward and his cards flew ahead. They surrounded Spyro, constantly in motion as they tilted forward facing him. The yellow dragon closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His hands extended out, causing a pattern to appear below Spyro. The patterns glowed a light apricot and the cards did the same. The cards spinned faster and faster. Their light started to get brighter. As a result, Spyro closed his eyes shut.

After a minute, he opened one eye to take a peak. Cards were now laid down onto the floor, all of which pointed towards him. The pattern under him was now a faded white, no longer an orange color like it was before. He opened his other eye after he blinked. Spyro looked all over himself, seeing what was different, which from what he could tell there was nothing. He looked and felt exactly the same as before. The young dragon looked at Zantor with a face full of confusion and disappointment.

"There… Isn't anything different." Spyro said. He noticed how his voice didn't change either, it was the same as before as well. "Was that supposed to do something?"

"It doesn't take effect right away," Zantor explained. "It'll take some time to take full effect. Considering you're young and still developing, it shouldn't take too long for you."

"How long?" Spyro tilted his head.

"About five or six years, give or take."

"Six years?!" Spyro blurted out. "That's too long!"

"I'm sorry, Spyro, but I can't make it an instant thing. It wouldn't end up as desired and even then, that would take longer than it would waiting a few years for it to be complete." Zantor explained further.

Spyro groaned and crossed his arms.

"Don't worry, it should start taking effect tomorrow."

The purple dragon sighed. He hated the idea of having to be patient, but it seemed like it was the only thing he could do for the moment.

At least it wouldn't take too long to start.

* * *

Sunlight shined through the window, causing Spyro to throw his arm over his face to cover his eyes. He turned to his other side so the sunlight wouldn't get in his eyes.

Sparx tapped Spyro's snout multiple times. The dragon only tried swatting him away tiredly and lazily with no success. Due to even more tapping, he squinted his eyes opened. His little dragonfly friend glowed a golden yellow thanks to the light coming through. Sparx had stopped tapping now Spyro had his eyes slightly open. He groaned and half-heartedly covered his eyes.

"Just give me five more minutes…"

Sparx let out a buzzing noise of surprise. He then tapped Spyro once again, only this time he did so on his throat. Spyro tried swatting him away for a second time, though like before he had no success. Sparx grabbed his hand and tried pulling him out of bed. Spyro let out a mixture of groaning and sighing.

"Okay, Sparx, I'll get up- Wait a second!" He sprung up and his eyes widened. "Am I hearing things, or is my voice a little different? A little deeper?"

Sparx nodded.

Spyro let out a quiet 'yes' as he fist-pumped. " _It's working_!" He yelled out in excitement.

He jumped out of bed and ran out. Sparx followed right behind him. Spyro ran as fast as a little dragon like himself could run. Every area his eyes could look to, he looked. He had to find Nestor as soon as he could. Luckily for him he was nearby. The bigger dragon was putting down tons of wood and stone onto the ground, seemingly ready to work.

Spyro halted, leaving a dust trail behind him. He managed to stop right before he bumped into Nestor. He took a few seconds to catch his breath. Nestor turned around and saw Spyro.

"Oh good morning, Spyro." He welcomed the younger one. "What's gotten you so out of breath?"

"Nestor! My voice!" He started in between pants. "It's… It's getting deeper!"

Nestor only chuckled. "That means it's working already. Now, are you ready to help?"

As Spyro opened his mouth, his stomach began growling. He looked at his stomach then back at Nestor with his hands on it. He nervously laughed.

"It seems like you're hungry. We can eat first, _then_ get to work." Nestor walked ahead of Spyro.

"Yeah, uh," Spyro ran up to his side, "sounds good!"

* * *

Grass rustled as his feet glided across the ground.

Spyro then laid down into the ground below. He turned his head over to the side. He saw the elders along with a camera man. What was being said, he didn't know. It wasn't something he was currently curious about. Spyro put his hands onto his chest and stomach. He had a smile upon his face. It had taken a while, but it felt quick and he was feeling happier compared to a couple years ago. It'll still be a bit, but now he wasn't minding that as much as before despite his impatience.

Enough thinking, though, he just wanted to relax for a little rather than have his mind busy. He turned his head where it pointed up against the sky above him. The dragon went to close his eyes, however before he closed his eyes entirely, he heard something he couldn't recognize. Spyro opened his eyes, but what he saw made them widen. He opened his wing up. It went on top of him. His wing covered body.

When he did that, he saw a blue magic shield circle him. It slowly disappeared from the top down, resulting in his wing lowering down back to his side. He looked at Sparx, who seemed like he was catching his breath. The dragonfly almost looked blue. Whatever was heading towards them, it took a lot out of Sparx if it was really him who summoned the blue shield.

"Are you okay, Sparx?"

He only nodded in response. Spyro looked over to the dragon elders and he swore could feel his stomach drop. Crystal statues took the place of those who were standing there. That included Nestor, who was on a higher platform compared to the other ones. He couldn't help but wondered if they were still alive or if they were gone for good. He shook his head. No, he couldn't let himself think that way. They were definitely alive, they couldn't go down that easily no matter what it was.

Spyro instantly got up, then ran over to the crystal statue that he knew was of Nestor's. Up close, it looked so different from Nestor, the same could be said for the other dragon elders as their statues looked nothing like them either. It was as if duplicates were everywhere. He laid his hand onto Nestor's statue.

Before he knew it, the crystal cracked and light shined through. Spyro took a few steps back in case the shards went everywhere. His wing covered his face as it came close to shattering. It shattered and the shards flew out then turned into light. He removed his wing and saw Nestor back as his normal self. The green dragon brushed off clothing and moved his neck. Spyro heard the cracks from Nestor stretching his neck out the way he did. Being in that crystal prison must've made him feel stiff.

Regardless, Spyro ran up to Nestor and hugged him, nearly knocking the air out of him.

"Whoa kid, I might've gotten stuck in there, but I ain't dying!" Nestor light-heartedly said, hugging back. "Thank you for releasing me, though."

Spyro pulled back.

"Release the other dragons, I'll go handle Gnasty Gnorc."

"I can handle Gnasty Gnorc! I'll get him while I free everyone!" Spyro firmly and confidently said.

Nestor opened his mouth as if to reject that idea, but instead he laughed. "If you think you can do that, then go right ahead. If you get crystalized, don't come crying back to me how you couldn't beat him!"

"Deal!" Spyro replied.

"Before you go, remember that Sparx will be keeping an eye on your health." Nestor looked at Sparx. "He'll change colors when you get hit."

Spyro nodded in affirmation. He broke off the hug then ran off to the other crystals, headbutting and flaming whatever got in his way. Despite his worries, Nestor couldn't help but be proud of Spyro.

He had a feeling that Spyro could do it.


	2. Try To Understand The Past

He grabbed the last gem he found.

Ever since defeating Gnasty Gnorc, he and Sparx decided to go find the rest of the gems that needed to be found. It took the two nearly a week, but it was worth it. Now that they got everything it was time for them to go home. Traveling back to Artisan didn't take them too long, only getting back at sundown.

He set the bag of gems down. Spyro stretched his body out, resulting in some pops and cracks from a few areas. Being out that long could make a dragon and dragonfly feel tired. He started yawning. If he could, he would drop to the ground and sleep that way but he knew Nestor would get on him for that. Speaking of him, he noticed Nestor walking up to him.

"Welcome home, Spyro." Nestor said. "Did you find all of the gems?"

Spyro nodded. "Every single one." He yawned.

"And that tired you out?" Nestor joked.

"Nah, I'm as energized as ever!" Spyro exclaimed. "I could go another week of gem finding no problem!"

The elder smirked. "Well if that's the case, then I guess you don't need a vacation to Dragon Shores-"

"Wait! I wanna go, I wanna go!"

Spyro's reaction made Nestor laugh. It always seemed like he had fun messing with him like that. He knew Nestor was joking and messing around, but he always fell for it each and every time.

"We can get going tomorrow." Nestor told them with a smile. "You need some rest from everything over the past week or so, so go on ahead."

Spyro nodded and started walking back, dragging his wings through the grass. He felt too tired to keep them up. Once he was home, they got to the bed and plopped down on it.

In about no time at all, he fell asleep and so did Sparx.

* * *

"Rise and shine, kid!" Nestor pulled the blanket away.

That caused Spyro to nearly fall off the bed. His eyes widened massively and his wings spread out. Two of his legs immediately went on the ground to catch himself.

"I'm awake! I'm awake!" They yelled out.

After a minute or two, he got up normally as if he didn't get woken up the way he just did. The other dragon put the blanket back onto the bed; Spyro fixed his bed up. He fluffed and adjusted his pillow then called it finished. The young dragon ran to the door, but he turned around to get his sunglasses. He put them on then ran back to Nestor.

"Say, where did you get these anyways?" Spyro tilted his head and raised his eyebrow.

Nestor sighed. "You know how I told you I found your egg and took care of you from there?"

Spyro nodded.

"Well, those very sunglasses were right next to your egg." Nestor started. "There wasn't a note, just those. I went all over the dragon realm but nobody knew where your egg came from nor who your parents were. Same with the sunglasses."

Spyro looked downwards. It seemed odd that they would be left with sunglasses, of all things, instead of a note. He thought he could try to find out what was going on. Although, that was an adventure for another time. For now, it was time for them to go to Dragon Shores with Sparx and Nestor. They all headed outside then into a portal nearby.

When they got to the other side, the fresh ocean breeze filled their nostrils. Breathing it in caused the younger dragon to smile. They walked ahead and inside the place. In front of them was a movie theater they would have to enter from the side. To their right, there were a couple of games, a dunking booth and a hit-the-targets stand to be precise. The latter had a few prizes one could win. To the left, there was a roller coaster and little food stand almost right next to it. The rest he couldn't see, he'd have to walk around more to know if there are any others and what they were.

The little dragon couldn't decide what to do first, they all seemed fun to do. Eventually he decided with the dunk booth first. He ran over to it and Nestor only followed. They were each given a ball to throw. Nestor only scoffed looking at the small ball he was given. Spyro, on the other hand, took it and shot it, almost right on the bullseye. The guy inside fell down to the water below him. Nestor patted Spyro on the head.

Once it was Nestor's turn, Spyro looked behind him as he took a step back. Nestor puffed his chest up. He then shot out a fireball at the target, destroying it entirely. The wood that held the target was now broken with sharp ends sticking out. Residue of flames were visible to everyone around. The guy fell down for a second time, possibly the last time for a while.

Spyro stood up on his hind legs. He raised his arm up and he had his hand open. Nestor looked at it for a moment before high-fiving with a smile. He opened his mouth but before he could get a single word out, Spyro started running off to the roller coaster. He chuckled as he followed them. Spyro jumped into one of the carts and he was bouncing. Nestor sat down next to him. He buckled them both up. The roller coaster then started moving.

As the ride went on, they started seeing balloons on the sides of the tracks. Nestor shot a small fireball at one of them, resulting in the balloon to pop. On the next one, Spyro tried to do the same thing but ended up missing. Nestor tried to keep his laughter in while Spyro crossed his arms and leaned back. Nestor patted their head for trying. For the rest of the ride, Spyro kept trying to flame the balloons. He only succeeded in getting a few out of who knows how many.

They got out of the ride. Spyro's stomach started growling. Since the food stand was a few feet away, they went over there to get some food, mainly sort of breakfast for Spyro. Once they got some, the younger dragon started eating it as if he was starving for several days.

"Slow down, it's not going anywhere!" Nestor said with a smile.

Spyro then coughed one or twice. Nestor patted Spyro's back. After that he stopped coughing. He still kept eating like before, though, as if he wasn't interrupted by him coughing. Nestor only sighed and shook his head. As the elder ate, he looked to his left then snickered. Spyro looked over in confusion, only to see the tunnel of love ride which made him even more confused.

"You know, I sometimes wonder if you'll ever have a partner, especially one to go on the tunnel of love with." Nestor playfully nudged the younger dragon.

Spyro only responded by sticking their tongue out and making noises of disgust. He looked in a different direction. His tongue went back in his mouth and his eyes widened. He pulled his sunglasses down to his nostrils. He tugged on Nestor's clothes, who looked down at him. Spyro pointed at what he was staring at. Nestor looked where he pointed. There was a wooden guitar hanging up as a prize at one game they saw coming in.

"If you want it, go on ahead," Nestor started, "but I'll have to see if it's authentic or fake."

Spyro nodded, finished eating what he got, then ran over to the game stand; Nestor followed. The little dragon stood up as he took one of the water guns. He shot the targets that popped forward as Nestor looked at the guitar. Spyro got all but one, missing it from aiming incorrectly. He tried once again to hit the last target before it went down. On the other hand, without anybody noticing, Nestor shot a tiny spit fireball at the target and it hit. It counted as a hit, causing Spyro to win. With a big smile, he cheered in victory.

The guy took the guitar down and handed it to Spyro. He took it, running his claws through the strings from up to down. It gave out sounds low and high. It needed some adjustments and tuning, but he was happy with it. He threw the strap part over himself, putting the guitar on his back. He returned being back on fours.

"So where to next, kiddo?"

Spyro turned around. "I'm going for the movies!" They ran ahead.

"Hold on a minute!" Nestor went after him.

* * *

The two came through the portal.

It felt like they had been there for a couple of hours, but the dark sky they walked under said otherwise. Spyro stretched his body out. He took his sunglasses off and looked at them. Nestor put his hand onto Spyro's shoulder.

"Are you good, Spyro?" He asked.

Spyro looked at Nestor. "Yeah, I think I'm gonna go to bed. All the fun today drained my energy." He gave him a smile.

"Okay." Nestor replied. "I'll see you tomorrow, then."

Spyro then ran off to his room. When he arrived, they set his sunglasses down on a handmade end table. He laid down onto the bed. The dragon lit a candle beside him. Said candle then lit up the area around them. He then stared at his sunglasses. There were times where he couldn't help but wonder about what happened to his birth parents and who they were, even if it wasn't a priority to him for the moment.

It wasn't that Spyro wasn't happy about being with the Artisans, he really was, but anybody like him would wonder about what, who, and why. Whatever the reason, he wouldn't be mad, he just wanted to know why he was abandoned here. He wanted to know why the sunglasses were the only thing left with his egg. There were so many questions he had, yet possibly no answers to be given nor found. Spyro wanted to know what the possible answers could be. If there was nothing for him, then he would be fine with that. He was happy where he was now.

He was sure that Sparx was thinking the same, or at least similar. Spyro knew he was looking at the sunglasses the same way he was. Maybe it was for the same reasons, maybe it was for different ones, that part they just couldn't tell. It wasn't something he needed to ask. There wasn't a reason that he had to. He let out a yawn. He supposed it was time for them to rest now.

Spyro blew out the candle light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally I was gonna have the next chapter as chapter two instead, but I thought some people might think the ending part might be out of nowhere so this was born. Might have it be a foundation for other things too but we'll see.


	3. In Betweens

Elora adjusts her leaf wristbands.

She takes a deep breath. She's about to meet a dragon, yet feels nervous. The faun looks over to Hunter, who seems a little more confident than she is. Her eyes then direct themselves to the portal. Elora feels a hand go onto her shoulder, though she doesn't look at where it came from.

"You nervous, Elora?" Hunter asks.

She nods, then turns her head. "I'm not swollen, am I? And are my webs noticeable?" She touches her neck. "They won't notice, will they?"

"I doubt they will, Elora!" The Professor reassures.

"Yeah! You'll be fine, Elora. You look great." He says.

She pushes her hair back. "Thanks." She looks at the Professor. "Is it working, Professor?"

"Almost." He pushes glasses up. "Just a few more adjustments to these orbs, then…"

"Wait, is it a good idea to bring a dragon here? I mean, you saw the Professor's book, they have claws like this!" He shows his own claws. "And teeth like this!" He shows his own teeth as if they were sharp, dragon teeth. "And spit fire out like this!" He pretends to shoot fireballs.

Elora rolls her eyes. "That's the point, Hunter. The guy _hates_ dragons, and they're dangerous, so what's better than bringing a dragon here?"

"She's right, you know!" The Professor adds. "It's working! I'm getting a dragon!"

The portal opens and it shoots out a purple dragon and a golden dragonfly. The dragon slides across the ground and their sunglasses nearly fly off. Elora, Hunter, and the Professor all stare at the dragon. The faun walks closer to them Hunter follows behind her. The dragon gets up and stands.

"Whoa, rough landing huh?" He looks at the dragonfly then around him as he fixes his sunglasses. His eyes then set on Elora and Hunter. "Hi, which ways the… Beach?"

The two don't reply, they just stare at him. He moves his head back.

"Hey stop staring! Haven't you guys seen a dragon before?" He tilts his head.

" _You're_ a _dragon_?" Hunter finally says, getting a look from Elora.

"You got a problem with that, pussy cat?" He retorts.

Hunter's face disgruntled and takes a step closer. Out of nowhere, a blast destroys the portal the dragon came from. It blows everyone away as a result of the explosion. Almost everyone screams as they're blown back.

"Well, well!" Ripto comes riding on Gulp. "Looks like somebody forgot to invite _me_ to the party!" He sniffs the air. "Are you trying to keep something from me?"

Elora pulls herself up and puts her hand onto her head. The dragon gets up completely unlike Elora, though his head moves around a little from the light-headedness he felt.

"A _dragon_ ?! You brought a _dragon_ to Avalar?!" He exclaims. "I _hate_ dragons!"

The dragon looks at him. "And _I_ have a feeling I'll hate you even more than you hate me. So what's your point?"

Ripto growls then raises his scepter up to the air, yelling out. Zoe flies over to him and shoots magic at him, causing him to let go of the scepter. She immediately catches it and flies off.

"Crush! Kill her!" Ripto demands.

Crush tries to hit her as commanded, but he instead hits Ripto. Ripto falls off and grazes Zoe, who loses her balance temporarily. Gulp bites staff and Zoe tries to break it free but to no avail. Gulp's teeth break off the staff and the end that has the gem goes down his mouth. He accidentally swallows then burps. Zoe flies away back to the others, specifically behind the dragon, as Ripto gets up, visibly upset. He tugs onto Gulp's mouth.

"Gulp you idiot! You imbecile! You ate my septer!" He pushes his mouth away in anger. He gets back on top of Gulp. "I'll deal with _you_ later!"

Crush and Gulp then start walking away from the scene. Elora walks up to the dragon's side, who tilts his head.

"Who _was_ that jerk?" He asks.

" _That_ was Ripto," she answers as she looks at him. "And we have to get rid of him! He's been causing all sorts of trouble around here and- I haven't got time to explain!"

She picks up a guide book which then floats on its own.

"Here, take this magic guide to Avalar. It'll help you begin to understand our worlds." The dragon takes the guide. "Right now, I have to follow Ripto and see what he's up to."

The dragon raises his brow then looks at their dragonfly, who looks back at him.

"I'll meet you in Summer Forest, okay?"

She runs off before he even gets a chance to reply, and Hunter follows after her.

"Hey, wait!" He tries to get their attention, but their attempt ends in failure as they keep running. He sighs as he looks at Sparx. "How do we keep getting ourselves into these messes, pal?"

The dragonfly only shrugs in response. Spyro looks ahead to see those who need his help. They raise their sunglasses to the top of his eyebrows for the time being.

He starts running ahead and Sparx flies by his side.

* * *

Spyro jumps through the portal.

He walks up to the faun in front of him, who seems to have heard his footsteps as she turns around.

"Oh hello!" She waves. "We didn't get a chance to introduce ourselves before. My name is Elora."

"Uh hi!" He smiles and looks up at her. "I'm Spyro!" He tilts their head, looking at Elora's hooves. "So what are you, some kind of goat?"

Elora giggles as she bends her upper body. She looks at him in the eyes. "I'm a faun you dork!" She says in a playful tone.

"Oh, sorry!" Spyro apologizes.

"Did you meet the gem cutters in Glimmer?" She asks.

"Yeah! They gave me a souvenir too, something that they called a talisman!"

"They gave you a _talisman_?"

"Yeah." Spyro replies. "What, are they special or something?"

As he says that, he feels a cramp stabbing him to the point where he's unable to ignore it. He puts his hand where the pain is at. Spyro grunts as he lowers his head. His wings and tail lower as well. He starts to slightly shake, but he figures he's able to walk without trouble. Elora sprints over to him and bends down.

"Are you okay, Spyro?" Elora's voice is laced with concern.

"Yeah I'm okay," he replies then clears his throat. "Don't worry about me, I gotta go stop that Ripto jerk."

She shakes her head. "No, you need to rest, and I'm not taking 'no' for an answer."

Spyro groans. She seems very persistent on him taking a break. He doesn't know her that well yet, but she sounds serious enough that he might not go ahead just yet. So due to that, he surrenders and moves forward to find a comfortable spot. Elora follows to help him out.

 _'Perfect damn timing, body,'_ he whispers to himself.

Sparx buzzes his worry. Spyro shoots him a face of reassurance, even if he knows Sparx won't stop worrying. He finally lays down onto the grass. Elora sits down next him. She goes to put her hand where his is, but stops in hesitation. He removes his hand. Unfortunately in return, his body tenses up. He sighs in annoyance.

"Were you walking too much? Did something hurt you?" 

Spyro raises an eyebrow, but then laughs once he realizes what she meant. This confuses the faun next to him.

"I'm fine, this is normal for me."

"You're saying that like it happens often."

"Oh, yeah it does actually now I think about it." Spyro looks up, tapping his chin with his claw.

"That… Doesn't sound okay, or normal." Her eyebrows furrow the ends droop downwards. "Do you need me to get the Professor?"

"Nah, trust me I'll be fine!" He gets up and starts walking. The cramps jab him again, causing him to stop walking seconds after. "...I forgot I was having a cramp there. Can- Can you help me here?"

She runs over to pick his arm up, putting it on her shoulders. After she does that, Hunter comes through the portal Spyro came out of earlier, panting and trying to catch his breath.

"Hunter! Where have you been?" Elora demands.

"I got lost!" He pants out, causing Elora to roll her eyes. "Wait, is he okay?"

"I'm fine, I just have some cramps kicking my butt." Spyro replies.

Hunter opens his mouth and looks at him in confusion. After a moment his face relaxes.

"Yeah I think I get it."

Elora looks at them both puzzled. "Anyways, collect all the talismans that you can. They will be needed for us to get to Ripto. Get whatever orbs you can, too."

"What are the orbs for?"

"They're for the portal to send you back home." Elora explains. "It would be fine if you didn't have to get them, but a certain _someone_ had to put in his birthday as the coordinates the first time around."

Elora looks at Hunter annoyed, but he just stares. "What?"

She just sighs. "Take care of Spyro, I have to see what Ripto is up to next."

"Got it, ma'am!" Hunter salutes then runs over to take Spyro from her hands. "Go ahead."

"Thank you." She runs off, but looks back after a dozen steps. "Oh, and if you find any orbs, Hunter, give them to Spyro!"

"Wait, why can't I hold onto them instead of _this_ guy?"

"Uh, you can't even keep track of your own _shoes_ , how can we expect you to hold onto them without losing them?" She crosses her arms.

Hunter looks at his feet and his eyes widen. "...Good point."

Elora rolls her eyes then finally runs off. Hunter sets Spyro down near a portal. Spyro adjusts himself to feel more comfortable. Half of his wings touch the grass below him. His hind legs get closer to his chest. Hunter sits down in front of him.

He scratches his head. "Hey, uhh, I just wanna apologize about what I said before. When you came to Avalar, I mean."

"Eh, it's cool." Spyro says, brushing it off.

"The books Elora and I looked at had pictures of dragons way bigger and scarier than you, so I didn't think you were one at first because you're, well… the opposite of that."

Spyro tries to hold it in at first, but then starts cracking up laughing. Sparx joins in after him.

"Us? Big and scary? Ha, now _that's_ comedy!" Spyro is unable to contain his laughter. "Scary is the last word to describe us, unless you manage to piss us off horribly that is. The elders are some of the best people I know!"

"Well, you're definitely a pretty cool dude in my book!"

Hunter puts his hand on top of Spyro's head as if he's about to ruffle someone's hair. That causes the sunglasses to fall down onto his snout. Spyro pushes the sunglasses up as far as he could. Hunter removes his hand before getting up. Spyro gets up as well, due to the cramps and pain subsiding for the moment.

Hunter runs off to a portal. "I'll see you later! If you still get cramps I'll get something for it."

Spyro nods and they go their separate ways for the time being.

* * *

Spyro flames Crush then runs away, allowing whatever debris he brings down to hit himself.

He just has to get him to get debris down on himself one more time and he will be done for Spring Forest. Crush shakes his head then walks over to a power up pad. This one glows a reddish orange unlike the last one where it was glowing blue. Fire shoots forward in Spyro's direction, making him run. He dodges a couple more. The floor where Crush stood stops glowing. He's on the move again. Spyro runs over to him again. He flames him for the final time. Crush slams his club against the ground.

Spyro runs off again, but he trips. He manages to catch himself, but his sunglasses fall off. He goes to get them. Looking up, he decides not to. Spyro runs away, leaving them behind. When he looks back, he sees that the debris crushed his sunglasses. On the other hand, Crush is down on the ground, unable to get up.

"No, Crush!" Ripto cries out, but he then looks at Spyro. "You may have defeated that simpleton, but Gulp will be more of a match for you!"

"Bring it on, shorty!" Spyro throws back, spreading out his legs as if he's about to go for another round.

Ripto growls. "Gulp, come here now!" Gulp goes through the wall behind Ripto. "Destroy him, and make sure it's _painful_!"

Gulp takes a step closer, but as soon as he does the place he stands starts coming apart. The ceiling above them seems like it's the first to go. Ripto looks at Gulp.

"Get me out of here!" He climbs onto him. "So long, _dragon_!"

Spyro relaxes as the guide comes out. Spring Forest is safe now. One down, two to go from the looks of it. He puts the book away. A frown crawls upon his face as he looks back at where the destroyed sunglasses are. Sparx looks at him as he buzzes.

He doesn't look back at him. "Yeah, I'll be okay."

Spyro goes back where Elora was at before he came in. He hangs his head down on the whole way back. When he gets back, he sits near the entrance and a portal that has activated since he defeated Crush. He hears the sound of hooves hit the floor multiple times. They get louder by the second. He doesn't need to look up to know Elora was coming. 

She stops running and smiles. "Spyro you did it! Ripto no longer has control of this area! The next place should be…" Elora looks closer at his face. "Spyro, are you okay?"

They shake his head. "My sunglasses got destroyed down there."

"You can always get another one, right?"

"This one's… Different." He looks away. "When Nestor found my egg, that was the only thing I had with me. It was the first thing that was just... Mine."

Elora opens her mouth, but no words come out. It seems like she really wants to say something, anything, but nothing. She just looks away from him. Spyro is the same, nothing comes from him either. Neither know what to say.

"I'll… Go see what Ripto might be up to next." Elora turns around.

"...Okay."

She runs ahead, then stops midway. "I'm sorry about your sunglasses, by the way."

She then continues to run off. Spyro gets up, walking to the portal to Autumn Plains. He goes through it.

It's about time he goes to the other worlds in this realm anyways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally this was gonna cover the entirety of the second game, but seeing how long it was getting I decided to stop before it got too long for one chapter, but then I kinda realized it's way shorter than I thought so whoops. I do apologize using the existing game cutscenes for this, but I thought I'd use them in here while changing them some either slightly or tremendously. Elora herself is definitely different, but hmm by what exactly?


	4. Stop Holding Your Breath

~~~~Spyro jumps into the hole, gliding to the floor below.

He has gotten everything he was able to in the other worlds within Autumn Plains, and now it's to take it back. As the dragon glides down, he hears Ripto talking. A fairy is in his hand, having her close to Gulp's mouth. Ripto holds her by her wings as she struggles to become free. Spyro lands behind Ripto as his eyebrows furrow.

"What is it, boy?" Ripto asks, then looks down at Zoe. "Ah right, the fairy. Here you go."

After he says that, Spyro flames him in the ass, sending him flying. Zoe flies up to Gulp and sticks her tongue out. Gulp tries to bite her with no success as she flies away from him. Ripto lands onto a platform with a big green and gold throne chair in the middle. He gets up, growling as he looks at his burned up cape.

"You singed my cape!" He exclaims, turning around to face Spyro. "Dragon, you are really starting to get on my nerves! Say goodbye, flame breath! Gulp!"

Gulp turns his head, facing more towards Ripto now unlike before.

"It's lunch time!"

Gulp begins charging off at Spyro, who runs to avoid his attacks. Gulp then roars after hitting the edges of the platform. The dragon runs to the other side of the room. Steel barrels fall from the air. Gulp charges after him again. Cramps start kicking in for Spyro once more like before. He barely dodges in time. He runs to the opposite end again. His breath gets heavier. His body tenses up. There isn't a chance he would let them in the way. Not now where he can get hurt. Spyro pants, awaiting for his next move. Gulp roars again. Ripto laughs.

"What, is he too _hard_ for you, dragon?" He taunts.

Spyro shoots his eyes at him. "Not at all!" He looks at Gulp. "I just hope this doesn't get in the way…" He whispers to himself.

Gulp then starts shooting out electric balls from his back. Spyro dodges left and right. The pattern rinses and repeats until he can finally attack back. After getting hit, Gulp stomps the ground. It makes Spyro go off the ground by a couple feet. He does the same process again, and again, and again, and again. Another electric ball shoots his way. Spyro dodges once more. They drop to the floor from the cramping. When another one comes at him, they roll away. He pants. That came too close for his liking. He makes himself run to get the last rocket he sees. Getting it in his mouth, they shoot it at Gulp.

That final blow causes him to fall down to the ground. He charges at him and manages to make Gulp go flying. The defeat seems to be too much for Ripto as he falls backwards with the throne chair. Spyro smiles as Autumn Plains is free now from Ripto.

"Spyro, you did it!" Elora cheers.

Spyro jumps hearing her voice, turning around. "Whoa Elora, where did you come from?"

"I was just outside the castle in Autumn Plains. The castle is now free again! There's no sign of Ripto." She explains as she puts her hands onto her waist. "And since you're around, the creatures of Avalar are finally starting to get along!"

A couple of fairies carry an umbrella and a beach chair. They carry them closer to Spyro, setting it down close to him.

"Since you've done so much for Avalar, and I know you _really_ miss being on vacation, we wanted to do something nice for you." Elora extends her arm out towards the chair. "It's not much but I hope you like it!"

She puts her arms behind her back. The faun smiles at him.

"Oh wow, this is great! Aren't you going to join me?" Spyro excitedly asks.

"Uhh, no," Elora looks away. "I'd like to, but I have to go check on the Professor in the Winter Tundra. He's still trying to fix the super portal and send you back home."

In the middle of her talking, Spyro sits down onto the beach chair. His arms go onto his stomach.

"That sounds," Spyro yawns, "interesting. I think I'll just stay out here for a while and soak up a few rays."

"Best to rest anyways since, well, your cramps and everything."

She puts her hand on the chair arm. The dragon puts his hand on her arm, close to her wrist, gently with a sleepy smile. Almost in an instant, she yanks her arm away. He only tilts his head and looks at her. The faun looks away as she clears her throat.

"Sorry, it's… An old, forced habit." Elora apologizes.

As Spyro drifts off to sleep, Elora starts running.

* * *

She gets outside of the castle and into Winter Tundra.

Her back goes up against the wall surrounding the castle. Elora looks at her left wrist where Spyro touched. She feels so dumb, so foolish, to get that close to him. Her thumb rubs the area on there. Briefly, she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She has sworn that, aside from Hunter and the Professor, she will never let anybody get so close to her, both literally at times and figuratively. Elora only hopes that her arms weren't swollen back at Autumn Plains, even more so that he didn't notice.

She doesn't know why she got as close to him as she did. All she knows is she just did. Even if he didn't ask questions, it's better for her to be cautious regardless. She can't let herself get too attached. He's gonna have to leave soon, she'll be okay.

She just has to be distant from him a little longer.

Elora feels a hand on her shoulder. She doesn't look away from her arm. The cheetah beside her kneels down to her level.

"Are you okay?" Hunter asks in a near whisper.

"He touched me."

"What?"

"Spyro." She looks at him. "They touched my arm. And I just… Yanked my arm away."

Elora repeats the motion. Hunter moves his body back to avoid getting hit. Instead, he ends up falling and sitting down as a result. She pulls her legs up to her chest and buries her face into her knees.

"Elora, you can't keep doing this."

"Yes, I can." She lifts her head up. "What, do you want me to not worry?"

"Exactly! He didn't ask about your neck, did he?"

"No."

"Did he ask why you're short for a faun?"

"No. But I might've been the first faun he's ever seen, he might not know this!"

"But if he didn't ask, or even pointed it out, then there shouldn't be a reason to worry!" Hunter says.

Elora scoffs. "It's better not to risk it, though."

"Elora, it's not like they're gonna make fun of you!"

Elora gets up and walks to the other side of the walls. She knows Hunter means well, but he knows why she is how she is better than nearly everyone. She puts her hands on the opposite side's arms.

She only hopes Spyro will be able to beat Ripto and no one gets seriously hurt.

* * *

Spyro lands onto the platform surrounded by what seems to be lava.

"Get back here you useless animals!" Ripto yells.

"Hey shorty! Maybe _I_ can help!"

Ripto turns around. His eyes widen as he sees Spyro. "What?! _You_ again?!"

"Yep!" Spyro says confidently. "If you wanna test that power crystal, why don't ya try it on me! I'll stand still, I promise."

"Hmm," Ripto thinks. "I like that idea! Dragon, you've just sealed your fate!"

Zoe appears from seemingly nowhere. She flies still in front of Spyro.

"Spyro, we want to help you fight Ripto!" Zoe says. "Elora is using the orbs you collected to store powerup energy. Hunter will throw the powered up orbs to you as they become ready. Even as we speak, the Professor is experimenting with new forms of powerup energy, so you'll soon have abilities that no one has ever seen before!"

Spyro nods. "Got it!"

Sparx buzzes in affirmation as well. The dragon then starts running to get the orbs that Hunter drops off. Ripto shoots at Spyro, who manages to dodge it just slightly. The shot grazes the end of Spyro's tail. He then picks up one of the orbs. He keeps running around until he gets to the other side. He picks up another orb, this time it's red. Spyro charges at Ripto. He flames him then runs off.

Then, getting to the third orb, he picks the blue one up. With all three picked up, he charges. He hits Ripto. Ripto starts running away from him. Spyro keeps charging at him. He manages to hit him two more times before the powerup wears off. He then runs around to get another three orbs. Ripto shoots fireballs at him once again. They all miss the dragon. Spyro flames him then runs past him. He grabs another orb. Not too far away, there's a green one. He grabs that as well. His spikes turn into an acid green. He then starts spitting at Ripto as he runs away. Spyro lands a few hits on him. He misses a couple of times. He manages to hit him up close.

The powerup fades away and his spikes turn to their original golden color. He runs around again. Ripto shoots and hits Spyro. Sparx turns into an azure blue from the hit. Both start picking up the orbs, with Spyro getting another one first. He charges at Ripto and flames him another time. He runs off as Ripto shoots. Ripto sees the orb Spyro's after. He goes for it himself. Spyro gets it first, though, and charges at him. He hits him for the last three times before Ripto falls down.

Just as he thinks they've won, Ripto stands up and slams the bottom half of his staff. A mechanical beast that resembles Gulp appears right below him.

"Well, shit." Spyro lets out a sigh before the battle continues.

Spyro does the same process once again. This time, it's with the blue powerup as he charges into the creature a few times before it wears off. The second time, he picks up a red orb last. He shoots several fireballs at them. One last fireball comes out of Spyro and it destroys the creature. It sends Ripto flying up into the sky, soon landing onto the platform. He slams his staff once again, but this time a flying mechanical creature comes out from below. They fly up into the air. The platform below starts to crumble and shake, resulting in Spyro to get one of the small yellow orbs then start flying. The floor below sinks into the boiling lava.

He flies parallel to Ripto as they shoot out fireballs at him. Spyro keeps shooting at him as long as he can. Ripto manages to dodge one and changes his direction immediately with a spot smirk on his face. Spyro follows him as Ripto heads for one part of the castle. Spyro sees Elora and Hunter standing there. His eyes widen as he figures out what Ripto's doing. He tries to fly faster in hopes of having them.

Ripto shoots a fireball at the cheetah and faun. Hunter moves quickly and pushes Elora out of the way. In the process, his tail gets hit and it turns ashy. Before he shoots another one at them, Spyro shoots him first causing him to turn another direction. Spyro stops next to his allies for a moment.

"Are you two hurt?" Spyro's voice is laced with concern.

"I'm okay, but my tail had to make a sacrifice." Hunter shows his tail.

"You _do_ realize it's on fire, right?"

Hunter looks at his tail then freaks out. He tries to put the fire at his tail tip out.

"Aside from a few bruises in unspeakable areas, I'll be fine." Elora reassures, completely ignoring Hunter's hot mess next to her. "Go get Ripto, Spyro, we believe in you."

The dragon smiles then flies off after Ripto again. He dodges a few more shots from Ripto before he shoots fireballs at him. The last two fireballs from Spyro bring Ripto down. His mechanical creature falls into the lava first with Ripto coming in second.

They all return to the front of the castle. The Professor gets the portal ready for Spyro. Elora is the first one to come forward.

"I don't think we can ever thank you enough, Spyro!" She puts her hands together. "So I suppose you have to go now?"

"Yeah I'd better, they'll be missing me in the dragon worlds and I've still got a vacation to take. I need it more than ever now."

"Before you go, I think that Moneybags has something he wants to give you." She glares at Moneybags nearby.

The bear scoffs. "I most certainly do not!"

Elora looks at Hunter. "Hunter."

With that, Hunter walks up to Moneybags, proceeding to beat him ten ways to Sunday. Elora and Spyro close their eyes, only peaking every now and then to see if it's over. The end results in Hunter sitting on top of Moneybags with a bag full of gems in his hand.

Elora looks back at Spyro. "Spyro, Moneybags is _very_ sorry that he made you pay so much on your way through Avalar. We want you to keep the gems as a reward for helping us!"

"Wow, thanks!" Spyro says as he turns his attention to Sparx. "Sparx, can you grab them?"

Sparx buzzes his answer as he flies over to the bag. The Professor presses buttons on his control panel for the portal.

"Let me just type in the new coordinates and-"

He looks behind him as the portal opens up, showing Dragon Shores on the other side.

"-There! Spyro, you can now go to Dragon Shores!"

Spyro looks at Elora and Hunter. "Hey, why don't you guys come with me? I bet you could use a holiday!"

"I'm afraid we can't, Spyro," she puts her arms behind her back, "Ripto may be gone but he's caused a lot of damage during his short stay. We'll be cleaning up for _weeks_! Just remember though that you can always get back to Avalar through Dragon Shores if you want to visit."

"Oh, and one more thing, Spyro!" Hunter says almost right after Elora finishes talking. "We want you to have this, too."

The cheetah takes out a pair of sunglasses and hands them over to Spyro. The dragon takes them and looks at it. Each side that wasn't the lenses have different colors from one another. One side was green while the other was blue. In the middle, the lightest shade was in the middle while the darkest were on both ends like if it was a gradient with one shade between them. Spyro looks up at Elora and Hunter.

"We know how much your old pair meant to you. While we couldn't restore the originals, we thought we could make you brand new ones with a little bit of a touch to them." Elora explains.

Spyro smiles widely while looking ready to cry. He stands up on his hind legs and hugs the two as a 'thank you'. Hunter hugs back while Elora pats him on the head. Spyro lets go and returns to being in all fours. They then look at Sparx.

"Come on, Sparx, we got a lot of vacation to catch up on!"

The two jump through the portal. Elora inaudibly releases a breath seeing he's gone now. Hunter looks at her.

"So how long do you think we can get everything fixed up?" He asks.

"If everyone works together, we should be able to get everything done in a week and a half to two weeks, so not too long really." She replies.

Hunter frowns. "You could've gone with Spyro to take a break with him while we get everything patched up. Why didn't you?"

"You already know why." She starts walking off as she holds her arms.

"Your mother would have wanted you to go take a break and get to know him better with how much you care about him." The Professor says. "She always said not to close yourself off from others."

She stops walking and everything falls silent. Hunter looks at them back and forth. Chills go down his spine and goosebumps pop up on his skin even though the fur covers them. Elora turns around. There isn't a smile nor a frown on her face. Her eyelids drop down to halfway close. The darkness of the Winter Tundra sky doesn't help with the fact her upper face is shadowed. She walks over to the Professor and she bends down to his level. Her eyes seem devoid of feeling and life.

She tilts her head slightly.

"You know, Professor," she leans in. "That's very bold of you to talk about her like she's still _alive_."

She stands up properly then turns around, walking away from the two. At the entrance she stops dead in her tracks. Tears form in her eyes as she bites her lower lip. Her face heats up a rosey pink color. Elora hangs her head.

"You guys can start without me," she quietly sniffs. "I'll be back in my cabin if you need me."

Elora starts walking again, this time to a portal back to Autumn Plains.

Once she gets back, she sees a flock of birds flying up in the orange sky above her. Looking at her surroundings and sighs of relief seeing the place is deserted. The faun traipses all the way up to the Autumn Plains forest. Before entering, she examines the areas around her once more. After seeing there's no one anywhere, she enters into the forest and the trees engulf her. The red, orange, and golden yellow leaves crumble and break beneath Elora's hooves as she traipses, becoming little pieces. With every few steps, her hair glows in the sunset rays that shine through the leaves.

Tears she has held back finally break free and fall down her reddened face. Each tear sparkles as they leave their tracks as a trail behind the green eyed faun. She gulps, swallowing back everything that might cause her to stop and breakdown. It's not something she desires to do outside, as she doesn't have anything to guide her through the dark when the sun's finally gone into the endless black void. Elora turns a little to the right. The rays start to get dimmer and dimmer with each passing step. It's a sight she's come to be one with over the years. Her hands instinctively go to her arms as the frigid air brushes up against her skin.

Soon enough, the dark wooden cabin enters her view. One of her hands leaves her arm and goes onto the green door handle before turning it. It's then that the door creaks open when she gently pushes forward. It wasn't the biggest place, but it's enough for two people to live in if so desired. She pushes the door close as it growls going back. Elora goes up to a red cabinet near her bed. Her bare hands feel the red paint that's ready to pop and peel off any minute. She sighs; she knows she'll have to redo the old paint job sooner or later. She pulls the doors open, where unlike the outside the inside has little to no paint anywhere. The pieces that are there are yet to be removed. Despite that, it's still good enough to store various fruits inside such as the apple that sits in front of Elora.

The faun grabs the apple before closing the red cabinet. She drags her legs across the dark oaks to reach her perfectly made bed. Her body flops onto the bed. She takes her dagger from the end table next to her bed. Carefully she cuts the apple just off center, making it become two halves of a whole. She lays the dagger back onto the flat surface. She wipes her face even if there's no more tears. Elora eats the apple slices as the sunlight starts to fade away. She taps a magic mushroom above the end table and results in lighting up the room with a blue tint.

As soon as she finishes eating, she throws the core away in a trash bin. She gets herself under the blankets, covering herself entirely aside from her head. Elora turns to face the wall. Her hand goes under the pillow.

Her eyelids droop down.


	5. I Could Be Lonely With You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Usually I don't have author's notes at the beginning, but this chapter will have both slurs, though it's minimal and not everywhere, and there will be realistic descriptions of something not so pretty looking. Can't spoil it, but it's a warning for this chapter considering the current rating which I might change later on.

Elora held onto her mother's hand.

She felt herself become sweaty and breathing heavier. Her eyes shakily wandered around as she saw the other fauns there, ones that were different breeds than her and her mother. Elora never had any friends, so Kulap thought it was a good idea to have her meet the other children in that world. Some of the children were playing ball while others were running around and chasing each other. Elora looked up at the older faun she held onto.

Kulap looked at her back with a smile.

"It's okay, Elora. I'll be here if you ever need me." She reassured her daughter.

Elora nodded and took a deep breath. Hesitantly she let go of her hand and started walking forward. After a few steps, she looked back at Kulap who still smiled and she waved. There was nothing she had to be nervous about, she knew that. She turned her head and walked towards the other kids. Upon getting closer, they seemed like they were older than her. Although then again, she _was_ shorter than usual even by a little bit, so they could be around her age and she wouldn't know. A ball flew her way and she caught it. Two of the fauns she saw earlier came up to her.

One wore brown attire while the other wore green. The brown clad faun had her hair in braids while the green clad one had a long ponytail. They were blue unlike Elora and Kulap. If she was correct, they were from Fractured Hills. She had never been there herself, but it was a place she wanted to go with her mother someday.

"Can we have our ball back?" The braided girl asked.

"Sure!" Elora handed them their ball with a wide grin, showing a tooth was missing in the front.

She went to grab it from Elora's hands, but the ponytailed faun put her arm in front. She scanned Elora from top to bottom. Afterwards she crossed her arms.

"Why is your neck like that? And where are your horns?" She asked.

"Oh!" Elora started as her hand went to where her little horns would be. "I was born with a webbed neck and no horns. Mamma and I dunno why, though."

Her arm went out and her hand was wide open.

"My name's Elora! What's your names?"

The two looked at each other. The green one had her eyebrow up and her mouth pointed one way instead of being a smile or a frown. The brown faun had the same expression as before. Said faun looked back at her.

"I'm Krista and this is Spinner." Krista introduced themselves.

"Yeah, and I am _so_ going." Spinner turned around as she started walking away. "See you never, Hermie."

Elora tilted her head and her eyebrow went up. That wasn't her name, yet for some reason she didn't decide to correct her. Krista looked at her, having a look of reconcile on her face.

"I'm sorry about Spinner, she's usually not like this." She apologized for her, taking the ball back. "Thank you for catching our ball, Elora!"

"Krista, let's go!"

Krista sighed. "I guess I'll see you later." She ran off and reunited with Spinner.

Elora sighed. There went those two, so now it was time for her to meet the other kids. Her gaze traveled around. There were a few fauns off in the distance with colorful balloons surrounding them. A cake with a few slices missing was in the middle of the whole thing, giving her a good idea on what was going on. She decided to walk over to them.

"Hello?"

Nobody paid any mind to her, they only danced along to the music.

" _Hello_!" Elora said louder than the first time.

They still didn't hear her. She walked over to one to get his attention, but she ended up getting hit by accident. She fell backwards into a mud puddle and groaned. Her green clothing had been stained when she fell in. Her ears fell downwards as she got up. She looked to her side, seeing Kulap bent down to her level.

"Are you okay, sweetheart?" Kulap's voice was laced with worry.

"I'm okay… I think." Elora got up as she answered. "I just wanna go home!"

Kulap frowned. "How about the swings? And we can get some ice cream afterwards if you want."

Elora nodded. "I want that."

Kulap's frown became a smile; she picked the young child up and put her on her back. Her yellow-orange fur brushed up against the mud on Elora's body, picking up some of it. Elora's arms wrapped around Kulap.

"Let's get you cleaned up first, okay?"

"Okay!"

Kulap went to the nearest body of water. She laid the red faun down next to the water. She pulled a washing towel out of her brown carrier bag. It unfolded the second it came out. Kulap dipped it into the water. She then pulled it out, twisting it for some of the water to fall out. Once that was done, she put the damp towel onto the muddy areas on her body. Elora had goosebumps appearing on her body as the towel touched her skin and fur. She stayed as still as she could, moving only when it was needed. Once that was over she shook her body. The older, blonde faun shielded herself from the wetness her daughter was shaking off.

Kulap then took the towel and went over her head with it, messing up her hair. Elora started laughing as she tried to get Kulap away. Kulap couldn't help but smile, near the edge of laughing. Elora almost fell onto her ass in the process. The other faun removed the towel as she laughed. Kulap folded the now dirty washing towel then put it back into her bag. She then hugged her child, who hugged back in return, except Elora was hugging her harder. Kulap broke off the hug and looked at her.

"I'll go get us some ice cream, okay?" Kulap informed. "I will be close, so don't worry I won't be far away."

Elora nodded with a large grin. "I want mint and strawberry!"

Kulap chuckled. "I know, hon."

She got up and walked away, still being in Elora's line of vision. She kept looking back with a reassuring smile. Elora sat there with her sight on Kulap. The older faun stopped walking and started talking to the person to get their ice cream. In the corner of her eye, a ball rolled up next to Elora. She turned her full attention to her. It was the same ball as before, meaning that the fauns she met earlier had to be close by.

She picked it up then looked up.

"Krista you dummy, you threw it too far again!" Spinner scolded. "I'm gonna go get it this time! Come on, Lila, let's go get it."

Elora immediately dropped the ball then pushed it away. It rolled off several feet away from her. It stopped rolling due to a hoof keeping it from going forward. Spinner removed her hoof as she bent down to grab it.

"Well well well, what do we have here," she threw the ball up into the air over and over. "Isn't it the little Hermie? What are you still doing here?"

"I'm- I'm here with my mom!" Elora stood up.

They just laughed. "That's not too surprising, only a mother could love her _freak_ of a child!" Spinner continued laughing.

"You would be cute…" Lila flicked her on the nose. "...If you didn't have a duck's foot for a neck."

Elora hung her head in shame as they laughed. Her mother was in the corner of her eye, ready to march over there for what they were doing.

"Hey! Leave her alone you meanies!"

Elora looked up, seeing the fauns stopped laughing as they looked behind them. A young cheetah stood behind the girls, having a face that a ten year old would consider serious. She never saw him before, but just in his presence she had a smile on her face. Lila walked up to him.

"What if we don't, cheetah boy? What are you gonna do then?" She taunted.

"Then I'll- I'll fight you!" He raised his fists confidently. "Pick on someone your own size!"

Spinner scoffed. "That's real cute. We don't have time for your little sad game." She walked away from them.

"Maybe come to us when you decide to _not_ hang out with a Hermie freak like _that_." Lila added before she pushed Elora into the water and left.

He stuck his tongue out accompanied with a sound. He then looked at Elora, who was shooting the water out of her mouth upwards. It landed onto the ground as Elora pulled herself out of the water. He ran over to her.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

Elora nodded. "I'm fine thanks to you, uhh…"

"Hunter." He told her. "Name's Hunter."

"Thanks, Hunter! I'm Elora!"

"You know, I'm upset I didn't get three." Kulap bent down, handing Elora her ice cream. "He seems like a keeper if you ask me."

"Hey it's nothing! I can't let someone like her get hurt by those meanies." Hunter scratched behind his head.

"Well I thank you for helping my daughter out." She smiled. "I had to see if you were going to be like those girls or a friend, because otherwise you would have been in a messy situation with them."

Elora chuckled at that. She sneezed into her elbow then sniffed. Kulap took another towel out of her bag and wrapped it around Elora. The two kids stood up.

"How about you two go sit somewhere comfortable? _I'm_ going to have a talk with their parents for using such words."

They nodded and Kulap walked off. Elora sneezed once again. The two little kids went over to an isolated, shaded spot away from everybody. Elora licked and took medium sized bites. A few times she stopped and she had her hand on her mouth. When she did it this time, Hunter laughed. She looked up at him.

"You look so funny like that!"

She chuckled. "Not as funny as you'll look!"

Her hand went to Hunter's head. She ruffled up his short haired fur. The towel fell off her right shoulder. He got her hand off and he fixed it by placing it back onto her shoulder.

"Your mom's really nice." Hunter said.

"Is your mom nice?" She tilted her head.

His ears fell and so did his eyes. "I don't know. I think she was. My parents were gone a few years ago, so I don't remember much about them."

"I'm… Sorry about that." She patted his shoulder. "I don't know my other parent if that helps."

He chuckled. "I guess we don't have many people then."

She suddenly hugged him, causing him to jump as well as going backwards. It took him a minute before returning the hug, even patting her on the back.

"We could be lonely together." Elora muttered to him.

Hunter smiled. "I'd like that."

* * *

It had been several months since Elora met Hunter.

She still got insults from the same girls, sometimes getting a combination of typical insults and the ones she got before. Every time she got an insult, Hunter was there to stand up for her. He sometimes ended up getting hurt doing so, however, as he came out of a few of them with a black eye. It was nice that she had a real friend despite the fact that each word the other fauns spat out stung her. The Molten Core fauns even joined in after a while even though she had never met them. That made her note to never visit neither Fractured Hills nor Molten Core unless she needed to for any reason.

Meanwhile whenever she wasn't outside, she studied the maps on each of the worlds in the realm. While she knew Autumn Plains very well, she never visited the others and she wanted to know about them as much as she could. She sometimes asked Kulap questions she had on her mind. One of them happened to be on why there were only three worlds instead of a fourth one to go with the seasonal theme. The most she got as an answer was that Spring Gardens was destroyed. She never mentioned how, why, nor when. Elora only shrugged it off as it being a mystery to her as well. It only made it more interesting to her, filling her mind with curiosities about the world. What was it like? Who used to live there? Was it similar to any of the current worlds or was it entirely different?

Those questions were ones she wanted to find answers at some point in her life. In all actuality, she didn't know if there was even a portal to get there. Nothing in the books said anything about it.

Kulap opened the door. "Dear, we're going out. Go get your scarf and hat, okay?"

Elora looked at her and nodded. She put a leaf on the page where she was at then closed it. She got up as she grabbed her red and white hat. The faun took the cherry red scarf off the wall and put it on with the hat. She skipped to Kulap and held her hand. They exited their cabin and walked through the forest. Elora stayed close to her mother. Soon enough they got to a portal leading to Summer Forest. They walked through, coming out on the other side.

Unlike Autumn Plains, the ground and the trees were all green instead of reds, oranges, and yellows. Elora's eyes wandered all around the area. She wanted to let go of her hand and run everywhere. There were different creatures in that world. She wanted to meet them all. She felt her mom stop, so she stopped walking as well. Now they were in front of a small, white building. Kulap knocked on the door and awaited for a reply.

"C-Coming!" A voice inside yelled out.

After a few seconds he got to the door and opened it. He was a small brown mole with a white lab coat. His eyes seemed to be closed but yet he had golden framed glasses. Above his eyes were big, white, bushy eyebrows that took up a majority of his forehead.

"How may I help you, ma'am?"

"Would you be my daughter's regular doctor?" Kulap asked outright.

That question took him by surprise. "Why would you come to me for that? I'm a professor, not a doctor."

"I know, but we have no other choice now." She explained. "If we had anyone else, we wouldn't come to you, but unfortunately it has come to that."

Right, Elora kept forgetting about that. Every doctor they came across either denied them or, in most cases, wanted to help get rid of her condition when really it wasn't affecting her negatively as far as she could remember. The most it brought onto her was the bullying, but both of them knew that it would come to her regardless. It only made her upset from the fact that they would bully her for something she couldn't control.

"And may I ask why?" The Professor asked.

Elora looked up to Kulap, who nodded at her. Her attention went back to the mole. She took off her hat and scarf, revealing her webbed neck and her hornless head. She put her scarf over her shoulder and held onto her hat with her swollen hands and wrists. Upon seeing this, he took off his glasses and wiped them with his coat. He put them back on.

"So that's why!" Professor adjusted his glasses. "This is quite unusual. Not in a bad way, of course, just not common."

"I don't want her to be, quote on quote, 'fixed' either before you think about it." Kulap immediately said.

"Of course not, it's both of your decisions after all. I wouldn't do anything of the sort without permission." He replied.

Kulap's shoulders went down and she smiled in reassurance. "Thank you so much."

" _But_ I do want to examine and research her to learn about her condition."

"It sounds okay to me, but what about you, Elora?" Kulap looked at her daughter.

After a moment of thinking, she looked at her. "Yeah, I'm fine with it."

Kulap looked back at the Professor. "Well it looks like you got yourself a deal, Professor."

"Great! So I take it you want a checkup now, then?"

"Yes please." Kulap had her hand together.

"Come inside then."

He walked back inside the building. Elora and Kulap followed. The young child looked around the lab. It seemed much bigger on the inside than it did on the outside. The walls were snow white while the tiled floors she walked on were an ocean blue. Getting her attention off the walls, she saw a brown desk that was messy. The Professor was getting a notebook that from what Elora could see was empty. She just assumed that nothing was written anywhere. He flipped through the pages to get to the very first one. When he did he stopped and started writing something down. He looked at his notes then looked at Elora.

"Mind if you stand near the monitor?" Professor asked kindly.

Elora nodded as she walked over to the monitor. Kulap took the hat and scarf from her before sitting down next to the monitor. Professor stepped closer.

"If you don't mind, take off your clothes."

Elora put her arms on her chest as if to hide her body. Kulap crossed her arms as she glared at the Professor with an eyebrow up. He switched looking at the two girls in the room.

"What? I just want to see if there's other physical symptoms, nothing more than that." He explained.

Elora watched him as she took her dress off through her legs, making sure her privates were hidden with it. Her ears dropped down while her face turned pink. The Professor laughed at her embarrassment.

"It's fine, we can get to that later whenever you're comfortable." He said.

He scanned her and wrote down a couple of notes. Elora looked down to avoid eye contact with him. Some areas that the clothes covered had a few moles accompanying them. Her nipples were widely spaced, which apparently was different from other people. She moved her eyeballs upwards to see what the Professor was doing. He finished writing, put the pencil in the middle of the pages, then closed the notebook.

He turned to Elora, who immediately looked away.

"You can put your clothes back on, Elora."

She did exactly that. She put it back on the same way she took it off. Elora went to Kulap and sat down next to her, holding her hand.

Elora took several more tests, some relating to her condition which it turned out she had only one X chromosome so it seemed like it only affected girls and women, while others were regular checkups. Professor gave them things that would help with Elora's development such as height growth, hormones, and so forth. He did what he could for the day so Kulap and Elora waved their goodbyes for the day.

When she stopped waving and faced ahead of her, she saw Hunter running up to her. He knocked her down with a hug. She hugged him back. Kulap bent down sideways to look at their faces. She was laughing in the process.

"Get up from the ground, kids, I don't think that's a great place for a hug." She playfully teased them.

Hunter broke away from the hug and got up first. He lent his hand to Elora. She took it then pulled herself up. Once she got her footing correct, Hunter hugged her again.

Afterwards they started walking back home.

* * *

It had been a few years since they met the Professor.

Elora still got called nasty things from the other kids every now and then, but it wasn't as bad as when it first started. Kulap and Hunter stood by her side through everything regardless of what it was. Around this time, Elora had to go in for another checkup so it was the usual. She was getting a lot more comfortable so she wasn't as nervous and embarrassed as before. Once they were done, Elora ran outside and hung out with Hunter who had to wait since he couldn't be in the same room during Elora's checkups.

Kulap leaned on the doorway as she watched the kids. The Professor, on the other hand, only stood next to her. The blonde faun smiled as she saw the kids being happy and playing together. Hunter tapped her back, causing Elora to come to a halt. As she tried to stop she fell backwards. He caught her before she hit the ground. They started laughing.

They had been getting along as if they were siblings from the very start. Because of that, Kulap allowed Hunter to stay at their place for as long as he wanted. He was like a son to her, a son she wasn't able to have. She loved and cared about both the same, no more or less for one or the other.

Her smile became a frown. The Professor took notice of this.

"Is something the matter, Kulap?"

She shrugged. "I just… Have a bad feeling that something's going to happen. I don't know why though."

He patted her on the back. "I'm sure it's nothing to worry about."

"Well just in case something does happen, especially to me," Kulap turned to him, "please- no, promise me that you'll take care of Elora."

His mouth opened, seemingly speechless. She didn't blame him, it sounded out of the blue to ask something like that. He cleared his throat. The Professor nodded.

"Y-Yeah, of course."

She sighed in relief and smiled.

"Thank you."

* * *

Kulap and Elora walked into Idol Springs.

The little faun looked around. There was a lake next to where they stood with a huge statue in the middle. If she wasn't holding a basket, and they weren't there to pick some fruits, she would jump in and have a swim. Kulap went ahead of her, causing Elora to follow right behind her. They waved a friendly 'hello' to the people living there as the two passed by them. Everyone waved back to them. They stopped walking when they reached a few trees. It was the first time Elora went out picking fruit with her mother that wasn't in Autumn Plains or in its sub-worlds.

Kulap reached up to grab a peach. She handed it to Elora, who took it then put it in her basket. She then put a peach in hers. The woman kept repeating the process between adding one into Elora's basket and then into her own. Elora looked to her right, seeing a blue butterfly. She then looked to Kulap.

"Is it okay if I go check out that butterfly over there, mom?" Elora asked.

"Yeah, just be sure not to go too far, okay?" Kulap grabbed another peach.

Elora nodded then ran off to the butterfly. She bent down, examining the small, blue insect. It was sitting on a black flower. Its wings glowed as if it was magic, which it could be just that. She put her finger down to the butterfly's level. At first, it didn't move an inch. All it did was slowly move its wings. Kulap looked over to Elora. One end of her mouth curled up. It soon disappeared after she saw a pebble fall down behind her. Her eyebrows furrowed as she tilted her head.

"What the…"

Kulap looked upwards. Her eyes widened. She looked back at Elora.

"Elora, watch out!"

She ran over to Elora. The younger faun looked at her. A shadow appeared on the ground. It grew larger and larger. Elora looked above her. Kulap pushed her out of the way. Elora rolled several feet away. She heard an exhale from where she was at. The faun looked up, seeing a large boulder from the top. Her view of her mother wasn't clear enough. She got up immediately then ran off to get the Professor.

Elora didn't look back, she only looked ahead. She ran as fast as she could. Any obstacles that came in her way, she either jumped over it or quickly ran around it. She ran into the portal. The girl came out on the other side. She looked around. To her left, nothing. To her right, no one. She turned to her left as she heard someone gasping for air. She ran over to the person, who happened to be the mole she was looking for. Elora pulled him out of the water.

"Thank you, Elora!" He looked around. "Wait, where is your mother?"

"She- She got hurt! I don't know how hurt, but- but you have to help her!" Elora begged.

"Alright, lead me to her!"

She grabbed Professor's arm. She dragged him with her. He struggled to keep up. They went through the portal. She led him to the location. As soon as they got close, he tried to stop them from moving.

"Wait, don't look-"

His attempts were futile. It was already too late. Elora screamed from the top of her lungs. She fell to the floor sobbing. The Professor held onto her. He tried to keep her face away from the scene. In the meantime he examined Kulap's lifeless body.

Her eyes were already rolled to the back of her head. Black fluids were coming out of her body, mainly her mouth, all in clumps. It was under her purple and bloated limbs. Aside from that, she was pale, almost ghostly with a blue tint. His nose was filled up with a horrible stench. If he was correct, that boulder pushed out whatever excess waste that was inside of her. He would have to check her mouth for anything else. Only her hair stayed the same as before as it didn't fall off yet. Even if Elora wanted him to, he couldn't do anything to save her.

It was already too late.

As horrible as the gruesome sight was, it was good they came here as fast as they did. If they came any later, it would be an even worse view for her to see. He tried to soothe her with all his might. She kept crying and sobbing with no sign of stopping. He was sure her face was stained from all of those tears by now.

"I'm so, so sorry Elora…" He whispered. "I'm sure she's in a good place now."

Elora held onto him tighter. She only hoped that he was right. All she wanted right now was hope this was some messed up nightmare her subconscious managed to conjure up. She only hoped that, if it was just a nightmare, she would wake up then see her mom there like if nothing ever happened. Unfortunately part of her knew that it was reality unlike every other part of her that was in deep denial.

He broke away from her. His hand went onto her puffy red face and wiped away one of her tears. Before anything else, he turned her around to face away from the corpse entirely. Elora didn't bother looking back. Seeing how she was once was good enough for the day, maybe forever.

"Go back home, Elora, I'll… Do what I can here." The Professor frowned.

She only nodded as a response. She sniffed as she walked away. Her hands held onto her arms. Elora breathed through her mouth. Tears kept coming out of her eyes and down her face. She exited Idol Springs, coming out of the portal. She sat down at the edge. Her legs dipped into the water, down to below her knees. She started sobbing again with her tears going down her nose bridge and falling off her nose. Each tear that came out fell into the water below her.

Elora heard footsteps coming closer. She didn't bother lifting her head up. If it was the other fauns, she wasn't in the mood to deal with them at that moment, though she wouldn't know why they would be in Summer Forest. She then heard a thud and grass moving. Whoever was there bent down onto one knee.

"Elora, what's wrong?" Hunter asked. "Why are you crying?"

She looked at him. "She's gone, Hunter. Mom's _gone_!"

She hugged him tightly. Not too long after Hunter started crying as well. Elora knew how much Kulap meant to him. She was the only one who was like an actual parent to him.

Now they truly felt lonely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, that was a long and heavy chapter. May Kulap rest in peace. I thank one of my friends for the help on the corpse description part, considering she knows a lot about corpses and she's in the military, so without her I wouldn't have made it as realistic as I did here.
> 
> As for other things, if you guys didn't figure it out already, Elora is intersex here! More specifically X0/Turner Syndrome since I wanted to do something different with making a character intersex rather than what people would commonly go with when doing fanfics. Despite everything I hope everyone who read this enjoyed this chapter!


	6. Return Trip

Spyro exits through the portal.

It's been a few weeks, possibly a month even, since he has been to Avalar. He thought it would be good to visit them now considering they are done repairing everything. He stretches his legs out. The dragon looks around the area. Their eyebrow goes up. That's odd, Elora and Hunter don't seem to be anywhere in Glimmer. They suppose they were somewhere else. He shrugs, he'll be able to find them in another place. He runs across the grass.

Around him, he sees tons of other people from other worlds in this one. Apparently, while he was gone, others started coming to other worlds for one reason or another. Whether it used to be common or not is unclear. Either way, it's a nice change of pace. Sparx buzzes to get their attention. Spyro looks ahead of him like Sparx wanted. He comes to a halt when they see the Professor in front of them. His sunglasses nearly fly off of his face.

"Oh, hello Spyro!" He greets him. "I didn't expect you to come back so soon!"

"I wanted to see how Avalar was coming along!" Spyro answers. "Say, where's Hunter, and Elora? I haven't seen them yet."

The Professor adjusts his glasses. "I suppose they're still sleeping. It's not noon yet, so I wouldn't worry too much. If you wish to find them, though, they're in Autumn Plains. There you should be able to find a cabin."

Spyro nods and so does Sparx. "Got it!"

He starts running through Glimmer. They find a portal leading to Summer Forest. They go through it. On the other side, he keeps running like there isn't a tomorrow. He dodges right and left around the people. Anything that can't be avoided by going around, he jumps over. Most people he runs by try to stay out of his way. Despite that there's no point where he slows down for anyone nor anything. They jump into another portal that leads into Autumn Plains. Just like before, he keeps going.

Below his feet, leaves break and some pieces stick to his soles. Spyro and Sparx leave a disappearing trail of footprints and magic dust respectively. He runs into the woods nearby. He wonders how he has never noticed this before on their previous visit, considering it's near the world's palace. With no sense of direction to their destination, they go left and right trying to find the cabin the Professor previously mentioned. It's hard to find something if there weren't any clues nor directions given. Now that they think about it, it might have been better if he went to the top of the palace then glided down to where it is.

Then again, he might not be able to see where it is even from up there. Just looking up from where they are, the sun can't be seen where it currently lies at. Before hitting up against the wooden walls, Spyro manages to stop themself from running into it. He walks around the cabin, trying to find the door inside. After looking at two sides, he finds it. He goes to open it, but he is interrupted from Sparx's buzz. They look at him pointing at one of the two windows. Spyro looks through the glass. Elora seems to be asleep still with her back facing towards him. From what he can see, there's another person in there but he's unable to tell who it is where they're at.

They go over to the door. He grabs the door handle. Sparx buzzes, catching Spyro's attention yet again. He turns to him.

"Do we have to wake her _now_?" Sparx signs.

They nod. "We could let her and Hunter sleep all day instead and not see them until tomorrow." Spyro whispers.

Sparx rolls his eyes. He flicks his tiny hand, as if to say 'okay go ahead and do it'. The dragon opens the door slowly at first to see if it made any sounds. After a second, only getting a tiny squeak which doesn't seem to be too loud to them, he opens it a little faster. Once he opens it completely, he's met with a dagger inches from his face. They jump backwards as a result. His wings spread out.

After a second, he looks at the possessor. Elora holds the dagger like she's about to attack. Her shoulders relax, same with her face. It becomes a face of shock.

"Spyro, I'm so sorry for that!" Her stance becomes more relaxed. "What are you doing here?"

"I was checking up on you and Hunter, and the Professor said you two would be here." He explains.

Elora sighs and groans at the same time. "Of course he would do that." She says quietly, presumably to herself.

She lays the dagger down onto the end table. He looks at the bed that Elora got up from. Hunter is asleep on it, having his hands all over. They inch closer to the cheetah. He then turns to Elora.

"I didn't know you and Hunter sleep in the same bed." They raise their eyebrow.

Elora shrugs. "Sometimes we do. Usually he sleeps in the other room, but he couldn't sleep too well last night so I let him sleep next to me."

Spyro looks over to his left. They see a door at the other side of the room, which is a darker color than the front door. He walks over to it. He goes to put their hand on it.

"Don't."

Immediately he freezes. As quiet as those words are, they hit him hard and heavy. Shivers crawl down his spine and through his bones. Her tone was enough for him to start second guessing their decisions. They turn to her. She walks closer to him.

"I'm sorry, but that room is off limits aside from me, Hunter, and the Professor." She pushes some of her messy hair back. "It's… a long story and I don't wish to get into it."

They slowly nod in understanding. As much as he wants to ask, he lays it off for now. Maybe he'll ask about it at a later time when she feels ready to talk about it, if at all. Then again, though, she should be the one to tell them whenever instead of asking. For all he knew it might be something personal, so he doesn't wish to pry on that.

Hunter springs upwards, causing Spyro to look in his direction. Elora turns around to see him awake as well. She smiles at him while he stretches.

"Oh, good morning, Hunter!" She warmly tells him.

"Good morning!" Hunter yawns out. He finally notices Spyro there. "We usually don't sleep together, like I- I mean-"

"She already explained it to me."

" _Oh_."

He clears his throat as he gets out of bed. His face is a clear, bright shade of red. Elora only chuckles seeing his face.

"What, do you _want_ us to sleep together more often?" Elora playfully teases.

"No I'm good! I'll, uhh, just go get us breakfast now."

Hunter immediately runs out the door. Spyro smirks while Elora laughs.

"It's always fun seeing him become so flustered like that, and we've been living together for almost a decade by now." She snorts.

"I didn't even know cheetahs can _get_ that red!" Spyro replies.

She turns around, this time with her arms behind her back. "I want to apologize for not welcoming you back earlier today, Spyro."

"It's no problem," they shrug it off, "you didn't know I was coming back. Speaking of, I saw everyone out of their worlds and into others."

"Oh yeah, ever since you came along, everyone has been everywhere. I haven't seen them doing that in _years_!"

"What caused them to stop?" They question as he tilts his head.

She only shrugs as she looks away. "I don't know, it felt so sudden when they did." She rubs her arm. "Oh, if you want you can join us for breakfast! Well, it would almost be lunchtime for you I'm guessing, but regardless you can join."

Spyro looks at Sparx. "How does that sound buddy?"

Sparx positively buzzes, giving them an affirmative answer. The dragon looks back at Elora, who smiles at the two.

"How about you help Hunter get the food? I'm sure he needs help getting them." She requests. "I need to get ready for the day anyways."

Spyro nods as they leave the cabin. As Spyro runs out, Sparx closes the door behind him before he joins them. The dragon doesn't need to run too far before finding Hunter, who's up in a tree trying to get fruit. He snickers seeing one of the native animals on his head. Hunter looks down at him and throws an apple at them. They move their head, dodging it while on the other hand it hits Sparx, knocking the air out of him. It causes Spyro to crack up. Sparx buzzes in annoyance.

They look at Sparx, who had a few spots of blue turning back to yellow on his body. Sparx angrily glares at him.

"Are you okay, Sparx?" Spyro asks, trying not to laugh more.

Sparx shakes his head before going off on them, which causes Spyro to laugh harder. Hunter grabs more fruit then jumps down in front of Spyro. He takes the apple he threw from Sparx, who crosses his arms once he takes it.

"Sorry about that, Sparx," Hunter looks at Spyro. "I take it Elora sent you out here?"

"Yeah actually. When did she get a dagger? She didn't have that with her the last time I was here." Their eyebrow goes up.

Hunter scratches his neck. "Oh that. She got that five years ago, when she turned eleven I think."

He starts walking ahead and Spyro catches up, walking next to him.

"She got that to protect herself when I'm not around to have her back." He explains. "She never had to use it against anyone, thankfully, but she insists on keeping it around. Knowing it's close by helps her sleep at night."

The ends of Spyro's mouth slides down. "I think I can understand that."

Hunter puts a basket down and climbs up another tree. A bird flies onto his head, making him wave his arm as he groans. He starts picking more apples.

"Let me guess, she pulled that out on you when you were coming in?"

"Right up in my face." He answers.

"Figured." Hunter drops a few down to Spyro, who catches them with the basket. "Elora became a pretty light sleeper over the years. She even pulls that out on me and the Professor sometimes."

"Did she ever get one of you?"

He brings his right arm up, showing a scar on his forearm. It wasn't a deep cut, but seeing it makes Spyro hiss like if he's the one who has the scar. It's not a fresh one, either, as it seems to be a year or two old with how faded it is.

"It didn't hurt too bad, but she got me by accident." He throws another apple down. "Man, she wouldn't stop apologizing for a _week_! She even wrapped my whole forearm too!"

They laugh a little. "She did _that_?"

"Well, I was her only friend." Hunter says. "Even if it doesn't seem like it, she does care a lot."

"Her only friend?"

"Yeah, the other fauns aren't fond of her, that I'll say." He throws the last one down.

Spyro catches it. "How are they not fond of her? She's a pretty cool person!"

"You and me both, Spyro." He jumps down. "It's too bad they don't see that. I guess some people will be jerks no matter what."

He doesn't get why and he wants to ask, but leaves it be. The dragon gives him the basket. Hunter takes it out from his hand. They start going to other worlds for other fruits. Ever since Autumn Plains, they have been quiet. With other world fruits, either Hunter climbs up and throws the fruit down to Spyro or Spyro charges at the trees for the fruit to fall while Hunter catches them. The process repeats until they get everything that's needed.

Once they get back, Hunter gets all of the meals ready and prepared for themselves with the fruits they gathered. Spyro lays a picnic blanket down onto the grass next to a tree. He doesn't think it's the nicest looking they're able to do, but they did it. When Hunter gets back, he puts the food onto the blanket. He turns around to get Elora, but to his surprise she's already walking right over. Unlike when Spyro first saw her earlier that day, her hair is neater and has been brushed over. Her leaf wristbands cover her wrists like they usually do, clearly adjusted to be that way.

"I was about to get you." Hunter says.

"You didn't have to, I was coming here anyways." She smiles at him before walking past Hunter.

They all sit down and start eating. They laugh from jokes they tell each other, mainly from Spyro telling stories from their home world. The food slowly becomes less and less as the three talk. Hunter nearly chokes on his food laughing, but luckily Elora and Spyro are there to help him with that. It feels like little time passes with them enjoying themselves for the most part.

Out of nowhere, they all hear a scream. Elora's and Hunter's ears perk up from the sound. She's the first one to get up as she runs towards the sound. Hunter, Spyro, and Sparx follow her to whoever screamed. When they get there, they see Elora get down onto her knees. She grabs a hold of a faun's hand, who grabs onto her in return. She tries to lift her up, slipping closer to the edge every few seconds. Elora manages to hold her ground, though, as she brings the faun up. Hunter runs over to her and helps her. Spyro almost does the same. Before they could, however, Hunter and Elora pull the girl up where she's no longer hanging on by the edge. Everyone around them cheers for the fact that she's okay and how they were here in time to save her.

The girl hugs Elora firmly nearly ready to break into tears. Elora freezes momentarily before putting her arms around her. She pats her back, letting her know she's alright now.

"Thank you so, _so_ much Elora!" Krista cries out. "I owe you my gratitude!"

Elora pulls away. "Hey, I'm just glad I was able to save you."

"Why, won't you look at that, it seems the little freak _is_ useful for _something_ after all!"

Elora, Hunter, and Spyro all look in the direction the voice came from. Elora's ears droop down after she sees that it's Spinner who said that. Lila and Sheila stand by her sides. Spyro gazes over to Elora, who seems unsure of how to react yet looks agitated at the same time. They don't know why one of the fauns just called his friend a _freak_ , which is untrue, but they're not about to let her insult Elora like that. He looks back at Spinner as he opens his mouth.

Before he's able to speak, Krista gets way ahead of him.

"Don't you start on your bullshit now." Krista stands up. "She just _saved my life_ and you're repaying her by starting up your unreasonable insults _now_? No, I'm not letting this slide anymore!"

The Fractured Hills fauns become taken aback from her sudden attitude. Spinner is the one who's shocked the most with her eyes bigger than the others. Krista stomps over to Spinner, getting close to her face.

"Just because she doesn't have any horns like us, just because she has a webbed neck unlike us, and just because she's a little shorter than us doesn't mean she's living like how we are!" She argues. "All she's ever done to us was be kind even when _you_ were a jerk, I'm the only one to return that kindness with what I genuinely can. I only tolerated your behavior towards her because you were my _friend_!"

She crosses her arm and turns her back against her, walking a few steps ahead of her. She turns back to the three.

"And even after the incident, you guys still treat her like a pile of shit, and for _what_? Until you guys change your behavior towards her, I'm not speaking to any of you."

Krista walks over to Elora. The red faun's face turns pink, and her lips slightly quiver, presumably from Krista's words for her.

"Elora, I just want to apologize for never standing up for you during all of those years, especially when you needed someone there the most." She gives her a quick hug. "I'll be here for you from now on, just let me know."

Krista then gives the other fauns the 'do anything to her and you're dead' look before walking away. Elora gets up, hanging her head as she swallows. Spyro goes to lay their hand onto her shoulder, but she just runs the other way. He opens his mouth to call for her, but nothing comes out of it now matter how hard he tries. He looks at the fauns. Their face scrunches up into a nasty look, possibly the nastiest one he's given to a person yet. The girls hold onto each other once they notice how he's looking at them.

The look he gives them is only a warning. A flame fumes in his body, but they don't let it out, keeping it for when they truly ask for it. Hunter, on the other hand, seems ready to go at the blue women, growling at them and everything. Spyro turns around, but he's stopped midway from Hunter's hand going into their shoulder. They look up at the cheetah for an answer to their unspoken question.

"Don't," he speaks, "I'll go after her. She's a lot more open to me than she is to you."

Unfortunately, they know there's a lot of truth in that statement, as much as he hates to admit that. He stays put, looking back to the fauns who are slowly backing away. He can see the fear in their eyes, knowing that they have heavily messed up big time. They _know_ that the fauns are afraid of what the two could do, but he doesn't do a thing. As horrible as they were to Elora, they're innocent from the point where they didn't do massive damage. Besides, Krista already took care of them for him.

If they were to do more, though, then he's not afraid of taking care of them himself.

Hunter runs off after Elora, leaving them behind for the moment. The fauns then run off, presumably back to their own home world. They decide to go after Hunter, albeit keeping their distance in case Elora sees him and runs off again.

They just wanna make sure that she's okay.


	7. My Feelings Are Fatal

Elora has her face buried into her legs.

Waves wash over the sand, touching the edges of her hooves. That causes her to pull her legs closer into her face and chest. Chills go down her spine as goosebumps show up on her skin. None of it makes her remove her head from her chilly knees. Her hair hits her face while it dances with the wind.

Hunter sits down next to Elora. He puts his hand on her shoulder. As a result, she jumps and moves a few inches away from him. After that, he keeps his hands to himself. He only stares, wondering if she's going to say anything at all, or if he's going to. Her gaze lays on the sparkling ocean that continues to wash by beneath the twilight sky above her and Hunter.

"...I'm sorry." She speaks, but she's still not looking at Hunter.

His head perks up along with his ears. It's not something he expected to hear from Elora, yet here he is, hearing an apology from the red faun close to him.

"I'm sorry I ran off like that." Elora continues. "I didn't have to, but… But I did."

"Elora, it's-"

"It's not alright." She interrupts. "You know this."

Unfortunately, it's something that the two know is correct. Even if she doesn't wish to admit this, she knows she has to stop running away. She knows that she needs to improve herself. She knows they're both right, yet despite everything she's unable to bring herself to do anything about it no matter how much she wants to. It conflicts with every part of her that screams not to let anybody in, especially with how she acts towards almost everyone around her.

She just can't help but feel afraid of the outcome. Elora doesn't even know _how_ to go on about it, definitely not by herself. As if Hunter read her mind, he gets in front of her but he still doesn't touch her. She looks up at him right in the eyes.

"We'll do this together like we always have." He softly says.

She slightly nods. He puts out his hand. It takes the faun a few seconds but once the hesitation ends, she takes his hand and gets back up. Elora turns around, then starts walking away. Once she gets to a couple dozen steps or so away, she looks back at Hunter, who is watching her leave.

"You wanna come with me?" She offers. "I'm… I'm gonna go see Mom."

He nods before getting up and going to her.

* * *

Spyro stops to take a breather, panting from running.

It's harder to find where they went than he originally thought. He didn't manage to notice what direction they headed in. If anything, he thought it would be easier to find them, but that ended up not being the case. They're not in the cabin, not in the castle, nowhere to be seen in Autumn Plains that he searched. Either they're in another world and he doesn't realize it, or there's more to Autumn Plains that he hasn't explored yet. For now, he needs a break.

He goes to sit down, but before he could, something catches his eye. They walk over to what he saw. Upon further inspection there's flowers laying on the ground. Some of the leaves were dead, yet the flowers themselves are very much alive. A few of the flowers were vetches, some were different colored zinnias, others were forget-me-nots and the rest were dark crimson and coral roses. Each one of the flowers were all wrapped up together in a beautiful bouquet with a yellow ribbon to tie it together. That was in front of a tombstone with the words "Kulap" and "Beloved mother – Died to keep her child alive" written on it from top to bottom respectively.

While he doesn't know her, he had to pay his respects to her. She had to have been a good mother if she was willing to sacrifice her life to save her kid, whoever that is. No known date is seen on the tombstone, so he doesn't know if the kid is still here and if he's met them. Maybe she was-

"Oh, hello Spyro!" He turns around to see Krista holding pink anthuriums. "I didn't expect to see you here of all places."

"I didn't expect you either." He replies.

Krista walks closer to him and the tombstone. She lays the flowers down next to the bouquet. The faun goes down on her knees. She rests her hands on her upper legs. Spyro sits like how Krista did.

"She was a good woman," Krista speaks.

They look at her. "Was she…?"

Sparx buzzes a groan. Krista raises her eyebrow, but after a moment her expression relaxes.

"Oh, no she's not my mother." She answers. "She's Elora's. I just came here to pay my respects and apologize how I haven't truly been there for her like I should've."

"I see," he looks downwards. A few seconds of letting what she said sink in, his head shoots back up. "Wait hang on, _Elora's_ mom?"

She nods. "Since Kulap's death, she hasn't let anyone get too close to her. She's not like how she used to be."

"I see. That explains a few things…" Spyro whispers to themself.

Her ears perk up ever so slightly. "Please don't tell her that you know about it. I feel like it's better if she were to tell you rather than you knowing it because of me."

He nods without hesitation.

"You should get going," Krista continues, "Elora might get here any minute now."

"Right."

Spyro runs off and Sparx follows behind him. As he gets into the bushes, he moves across the ground silently. He sees Hunter and Elora walking towards where he came from. They hear them talking about something, but he's too far away to know exactly what. Either way, he's glad he got out of there as soon as he did. As soon as they leave his view, he runs off as fast as he's able to. After he gets out of the forest, he stops running and walks instead. They look behind them; he starts to think about what Krista told them. Thinking about it makes him feel uncertain of what they should do, if anything at all. He doesn't want to seem like he's prying into her personal life, but at the same time he can't help but wonder if she's going to open up to him on that stuff.

He gets snapped out of his thoughts from a little bump causing him to go backwards. They look ahead, seeing the Professor on the ground. They help him off the ground; the Professor fixes his glasses.

"Are you okay?" Spyro asks.

"Yeah, I'm alright." He reassures. "You seem to be elsewhere right now."

They scratch behind his neck. "Oh, yeah I'm just wondering about Elora with her whole, y'know…"

The Professor sighs. "Let Elora come to you herself."

"I know I know, I won't pressure her on it with her mom and whatever else."

"So you know about that…" His eyebrows droop and he hangs his head. "She… Hasn't been the same since the incident."

"I can't imagine anyone would be, knowing their parent died."

The Professor doesn't respond to him immediately. If anything, it seems like he winced at what they said. He walks ahead of the dragon, who starts walking as well and stays close to the Professor. The mole doesn't look at Spyro, rather he keeps his eyes on his notebook.

"Professor?"

"...She saw her dead on the ground."

Just like his feet, his heart almost stops dead in its tracks. It sinks down to the bottom of his stomach. He feels the color in his face draining away. He forces himself to keep moving. The thought of seeing someone a person saw as a parent dead in front of them. Spyro can't imagine the idea of Nestor dying, much less right in front of their eyes while saving them. They silently gulp, pushing back any tears that want to come out just thinking about it; he's unsure of how he would react if something like that happened to Nestor or how he would be in the aftermath. Now he doesn't blame how she feels more than ever, and it really pushes back his thought of going up to Elora about it.

There's no words that can describe how they feel, so he remains silent. He pushes his sunglasses up, hiding the expression and feelings that are present in his eyes. They quietly steady their breathing before his heart pops out of his chest. He keeps his eyes straight ahead so he doesn't bump into anyone else.

"I'm sorry, it's… It's just been hard since that day."

"No, I'm sorry, I… Didn't know it was like that, for either of you." Spyro looks away. "I didn't know it happened like _that_ , I thought she…"

"You didn't know. Give her some space and some time."

Spyro nods, not looking at him still.

"I gotta go, I have work to do." Professor says.

"Okay, bye."

The mole starts walking away. Spyro lays on the ground and the ends of his wings touch the broken leaves. Their tail moves back and forth like a cat. There isn't much Spyro can do for the time being, so he decides to lay there for a bit. Sparx flies in front of their never changing face as he buzzes. He sighs.

"I know, we're not here to lay around."

Sparx buzzes again. Spyro swipes his hand across the leaves like someone splashing water on another person. They hit the dragonfly and he buzzes in annoyance as a response. Spyro chuckles and snorts. Sparx tries to do it back, but ends up failing with no leaves hitting the dragon, who's trying to hold back a smile but can't help it. The golden dragonfly blows a raspberry at him. He only snorts and sticks his tongue out at him as a response. Sparx's golden face turns as red as a ruby.

Out of nowhere, a few baby turtles tackle him from the side. Their wings spread out in a near instant. In that moment, they cover the turtles that's on him. He rolls a couple feet away from where he got tackled. Spyro opens his wings enough for them and the babies to see, enough for them to move around. Once his eyes set on the turtles, he smiles.

"Avaunt Spyro!"

They keep repeating those two words over and over again.

"Aww. Did you guys miss me?"

The dragon gently pats them on their little heads. Someone grabs one of the turtles up from Spyro's belly. He looks up to see Elora standing over them as she holds the turtle in her arms.

"'Avaunt Spyro', huh?" The faun teases.

Their face turns red as they clear their throat. "Why yes, Elora, they call me their avaunt." He suavely says.

She rolls her eyes while she puts her free hand on her hip. The baby turtle pulls her hair; their action doesn't make her flinch, rather she makes them let go of her hair and puts her hand back where it was before.

"Lemme guess, you panicked and called yourself that?"

The smile on Spyro's face fades.

* * *

_He flamed and rammed into each and every one of what stood in his way._

_They looked around to see where the turtles were at only to see them nowhere. His eyes widened and his heart raced. The dragon looked around frantically._

_"Where are you?! Come to avaunt Spyro!" They yelled out._

_Hearing a baby, they looked upwards to their left. He saw them going into water, making him sigh in relief._

* * *

"Nah, me? Panic? I don't panic." He smoothly replies. "I kept them safe! Who _wouldn't_ call me that?"

Elora smirks as if she has something up her sleeve. The babies all start clapping together. All of them then start chanting one thing.

"Avaunt panic, avaunt panic!"

Spyro pulls their sunglasses down a drop, then he rolls their eyes before pushing them back up. He takes the kids off and puts them beside himself. They get up as they scoff. He looks up at Elora.

"You aren't here to try and make fun of me are you?"

"I wish." Her smirk stays the same as she puts the turtle down. "I wanna talk to you about something."

"About what? You being as shut as a clam?"

Spyro laughs and Elora follows soon after them. She cuts it off by clearing her throat. The faun rests her arms behind her back.

"Actually… That's what I-"

"Ah, hello Elora, hello Spyro." Prince Tortiss says. "It is nice to see you once again."

"Nothin's going on back home, so I thought I'd visit."

The turtle prince smiles. "Elora, I wish to request a way to Shady Oasis if it is not too much trouble."

"Oh, of course! It's no trouble!"

The red faun walks ahead. Once her face is no longer in Prince Tortiss's view, her lips pressed together, seemingly annoyed about something.

Well, whatever she was going to say will have to wait later.

* * *

Fourth time isn't going to be a problem, right?

That's what she's hoping as she takes a deep breath. Elora sits down on the green grass and next to a tree. The breeze brushes up against her body, making goosebumps show up on her arms and legs. Her hands go onto her arms as she looks off into the distance in front of her, waiting for the purple dragon to arrive. She asked him to meet her there so they could talk privately without anyone interrupting them. He hasn't shown up in the half hour she's been waiting even though it feels like it's been forever.

She has tried a couple more times, but they ended up failing due to interruptions and being unable to say what she wanted to say and said something else instead respectively. Elora only hopes that this is the time she's able to say it without anymore interruptions, just nothing else that can get in the way. The place she chose is an area people don't go to that often, so she's thinking how they won't get interrupted too badly, plus it has a nice view so they have something to look at while they speak.

Her ears then perk up from the sound of feet gliding across the grass. She immediately turns her head with a smile. The moment she sees who's walking to her, her eyelids drop halfway as her eyes droop down and her smile falls. It's just Hunter. He gets close and sits down close to her with his legs crossed. Elora rests her face on her closed hand. Her cheeks puff up. She's not impatient whatsoever, but this is something she wishes to quickly pull the bandage off, not take it off slowly. The faster the better she believes.

"Spyro's getting held up, but he'll be here." Hunter says.

"And then what am I gonna do?" She looks at him. "Tell him about my condition and let him laugh at me? Make fun of me? Hate me forever? Is it even a good idea in the first place?"

"Elora, you're overthinking it. You'll be fine," Hunter reassures, "there's no way he'll make fun of you."

"But how do you know? He might think I'm already weird because of my neck webbing, my short stature, my-"

"Elora, he doesn't." He interrupts her. "He cares about you and he likes you, he's not going to suddenly do that because of it. It wouldn't be Spyro if he did."

"What do you mean?" Elora raises her eyebrows.

"Spyro wasn't born _as_ Spyro. I know it's not the same thing, but he'd get how it is."

"Wait, he wasn't?"

He opens his mouth, but then closes it and his ears rise up. "Right, I forgot you don't get _that_ like other people do. You know how he got those cramps the first time he showed up?"

She nods slowly and slightly as her lips turn down.

"Those were in heat cramps. If they were born how we know him, he…" He drags out the last word.

Her ears perk up and her eyes shoot open. "Oh, I didn't even realize that! I was just concerned."

He pats her back, almost a little harder than he expected as Elora shoots a tad forward. Hunter chuckles, but then stops after a minute.

"Don't let him know we know that, though. Just keep it in mind when you tell him about your thing, alright?"

"Ye-Yeah."

He lays back, arms behind him with his paws surrounded by grass. "So why did you choose this place to tell him?"

Elora shrugs. "Just thought it was a good place I guess."

"I'm surprised," Hunter replies. "I thought your mind would get the better of you with, oh I don't know, possibilities of how this could mess up like how people would interrupt you, how something bad could happen, how-"

"Okay you can stop, I know what you're doing!" She crosses her arms and her eyebrows furrow as the faun glares at him.

"And?"

She keeps every part of her body as it is until a few more seconds. Her arms uncross and fall down to the ground. Her eyebrows switch to the thinner ends dropping down as her eyes close.

Elora groans. " _And_ it's working, you dork." Hunter smiles in response. "I guess we could talk about it at our place."

"Aww, and I tried to come as fast as possible too!"

Elora and Hunter look behind them. Spyro's wings are touching the ground. His lower lip curls and protrudes before becoming a sly smile the two knew the dragon for. They raise their sunglasses, showing how his eyes are smiling too.

"Nah, let's go. If it's _that_ important then I don't mind."

Spyro places his sunglasses back down. They then start walking to the gateway to Autumn Plains. Elora gets up and runs to walk beside him while Hunter follows. They get to the fall-like realm and head into the forest on their way to the house in the middle of it.

Along the way, no one says a word to one another.

Elora lays her hands on the upper half of her arms; she stares at Spyro. Her stomach twists and turns, tossing like the sea. The red faun's heart sinks to the bottom like the dark, empty depths of the ocean, beating faster to try to survive what she's about to do. She swears her face is tinted with the color of an apple, but she's unable to look at her face to be entirely sure. Her throat dries and sores as if she yelled at the top of her lungs, yet she knows that's not the case whatsoever. The faun's chest begins to feel heavier and heavier, almost enough to make it harder to walk on those hooves of hers. It's almost enough for her to drop on her knees and confess everything from the front of her mind to the dark corners that she doesn't want light to shine on.

She firmly grabs one of Hunter's fingers. Elora tries to take deep breaths, trying to calm her mind and body. Her eyes still lay on Spyro, who kept walking ahead without looking back. The faun doesn't have to look at the cheetah to know his face is laced with concern. His thumb gently rubs her hand and she's doing her best to focus on that. Despite every attempt to calm down, only the feeling of falling on her knees is gone while her mind and body are still on edge with the former going faster than lightning. The whole time she feels like leaning onto the cheetah and letting him carry her regardless if she's feeling able to walk or not. For now, however, just to stay as calm as she can, she's sticking to holding his hand.

As she thinks about it, Spyro looks behind himself and shoots Elora a smile. She forces one back at him. They don't seem to notice her being off as he looks back ahead. Her strained face then lets go, going back to the expression she's had before. Elora feels Hunter move his hand. He doesn't let her hand go of his, but he moves it enough where she's holding his whole hand instead of just his finger. He's holding her hand as firmly as Elora is holding his own. Knowing he did that makes her feel better, even if not entirely.

Before they all know it, they reach their destination, Elora and Hunter's home. Elora knows that this is it, it's time for her to tell the purple dragon. She silently gulps, trying to swallow everything she feels back to get this done and over with. There's no going back now, even if she wants to. She walks up to the door and opens it for Spyro.

"You didn't have to, but thanks!"

Spyro walks inside as they look around, presumably a place for them to sit. Hunter walks up to Elora's side and has his face close to her head.

"I'll be out here if you need me," Hunter whispers.

" _What_?!" She quietly exclaims.

He pats her back. "You got this, I know you do."

She opens her mouth to argue, but inevitably closes it in the end. She only hopes he's right despite everything in her body and mind saying otherwise. Elora takes a deep inhale with her nose and slowly exhales through her lips. The faun then walks inside as she closes the door behind her. She looks for Spyro, which takes no time at all with his body and underbelly colors contrasting against the walls and floor color and the fact he has a small stool in his hands.

"Is this okay?" They politely ask. "I don't know where to sit, so…"

Elora sits on the bed. "You can sit there if you want. If you want something softer, my bed's fine too."

He nods before placing the wooden stool near the bed. Spyro sits on it, getting himself in a comfortable position as he moves his sunglasses to the top of his head. Elora stares at Spyro, who patiently waits for her to speak after her last sentence. Her chest becomes heavier like before; her heart feels like it's being simultaneously stabbed and punched simply staring at him with what she wants to say. No matter how much she wishes to open her mouth, it doesn't open. It is if her body is telling her not to speak, creating its own frog in her throat to prevent her from speaking. She silently gulps in an attempt to release her body's defense mechanism to speak with no success. Elora places her hands in her lap to hide her trembling. Her eyes repeatedly blink almost without a break.

The purple dragon cocks his head to the side. Their tail wags from side to side as one of his eyebrows raise. She doesn't know if she's interpreting his body language correctly, but if she is then it's killing her even more than it already is. Elora feels her eyes getting ready to tear up, ready to stain her face from crying her eyes and tear ducts out. She tightly grips the blanket she sits on, just something to hold onto to make sure she _doesn't_ break down into tears.

"I… I'm sorry, I… I need to tell you that I'm… I'm…" Elora hoarsely starts.

It's clear to them both that she's forcing the words out with her voice cracking and breaking at every word, every second she speaks. The red faun can't help but feel terrible for the fact that he's having to sit there, seeing her go from seemingly okay to nearly breaking into tears, nearly breaking down into what she considers her worst, in a minute. His eyes dart between her and the kitchen.

"Do you, uh…"

"N-No!" Elora cracks as she throws her hand out, trembling heavily, causing Spyro to jump back. "You- You don't need to. Spy- Spyro, the reason why- the reason why I have a webbed neck, why my wrists are usually swollen, why- why my-"

"Whoa, whoa! Elora calm down, you don't need to show _that_ much!"

"-The reason for all of that is- it's because I'm… I'm in- intersex, Tur-Turner Syndrome to be- to be precise. You- You can hate- hate me now."

On her last few spoken words, her voice cracks and her tears involuntarily start streaming down her face. She sniffs, trying to keep her face free from her boogers unlike her tears. Her eyes puff up and rings of red cover them. Elora's ears twitch before finally falling down as she pulls her legs up to her chest and buries her face in it to prevent Spyro from seeing it any longer than he needs to. She begins full on sobbing, dampening her knees with her tears. Her neck beats like if her heart jumped from her chest into her throat like it's about to jump out despite her feeling it beat harder and faster than she's ever felt it before in her life. It feels like it's going on for eternity even though she knows that's incorrect.

Her mind races faster than ever, almost like the speed of light entering a room. What's he thinking? Does he hate her now? Is this a mistake? Is he going to walk out of the house and leave her there to drown in her tears? Is Spyro going to mock her? Make fun of her? Multiple of those things, or all of them? She doesn't know exactly what and thinking about it makes her cry even worse. All she knows is that her heart, her body, and her brain all hurt like hell. It's almost like the weight has been lifted off her shoulders, but the aftermath of it weighs even heavier on her body.

Before she knows it, her head is lifted from her legs. Her emerald eyes are met with their amethyst eyes. They were calm, comforting, and they sympathized with everything she feels, almost like if they know exactly how those feelings are.

"Elora, I would _never_ hate you. You don't need to worry about that with me." He softly speaks unlike his usual confident attitude. It's almost like he's a different person, yet the same one she's known from weeks ago. "You're Elora to me, I don't care what you are. I don't care if you were to come from a different universe, if you're into nobody, if you're trans, non-binary, I just don't. You're my friend, I wouldn't change that."

They wipe away the tears that are coming from one of her eyes. She pulls him into a hug, laying her head onto his robust shoulder as she continues to quietly sob, not out of fear and worry, but instead out of relief. He rubs her back in the middle of the hug. Her eyes wander up to the window in front of her, seeing Hunter outside. He points at her then shoots her a thumbs up with a curious and concerned stare. She responds to his silent question with a thumbs up back and a slight nod. Elora buries her head into their scales and keeps her face hidden. No more tears come out of her eyes. However, she doesn't say a thing in case she starts up again. All she wants right now is to keep hugging him for as long as she's able to. Elora sniffs, not as harshly as she did before.

The storm within has passed, now it's calm even if the sun doesn't shine through entirely.

Spyro doesn't move his body, only his wings. They wrap around the faun, making her feel safer and warmer. Her heart becomes steady again as her stomach no longer feels like a pit that her heart fell into. Everything feels okay again, even her mind has calmed for the most part. Due to her no longer crying, silence lingers in the room. She doesn't wish to disturb the silent peace between them, and she's sure Spyro feels the same way as he hasn't said another word. It's not like she wants to complain, though, this is one of the best things that could happen to her in the longest time.

Elora finally opens up with at least one thing.

As they say, one baby step at a time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this took way longer to actually do than I thought, and the chapter came out shorter than I was planning on doing. Oh well, either way I'm just happy I got this done.
> 
> The avaunt part? That's... Actually kinda what happened during my playthrough of the second game in the Reignited trilogy, so uh you can thank that moment for the fact that this exists XD And can I just say I'm way too proud of the ending portion of the chapter? Because I'd say some paragraphs, but just the ending section as a whole? Happy as fuck with it, dunno why, but I just am and I have this done so I hope y'all enjoyed this at least.


	8. Girl in The Mirror

Elora takes a deep breath as she stands in front of the mirror.

She thought she would have Krista over to her place and see how she can help with her confidence. Of course, she can always go to Hunter and Spyro for it, but she figured she would spend some time with Krista since they never got to know each other that well. Plus it won't hurt to try her ideas first, see what she has in mind. Aside from, well, what Krista's currently doing.

Elora tries to turn her head to look at the other faun, but Krista immediately stops her and keeps her facing straight ahead. Her hands go back to Elora's red hair.

"Stay still, I can't do braids when you're moving your head everywhere!" Krista says as she smiles.

Elora's eyebrow rises. "And this is supposed to help me _how_?"

The blue faun stops what she's doing. One of her ears twitch as she stands there, presumably thinking of an answer. In the end, she shrugs before continuing braiding her hair.

"Dunno, thought maybe a new look might help some?" Krista somewhat answers. "I'm not sure how _exactly_ someone would gain confidence, especially not from… Y'know…"

She nervously laughs, with it fading into a sigh seconds later. She finishes up on the last braid, tying the end of it with the last green hair tie she has. Krista takes a few steps back to give Elora enough space. Elora looks at her hair fully in the mirror, turning her head to see the sides. She grabs one of the braids and brings it forward to see it in front of her. It's not something she'd call her style, rather maybe a small braid or two would suit her better if she has to have braids at all, but she has to admit Krista did well on them. The red faun looks behind her, seeing Krista smile at her.

Elora returns the smile, albeit nervously. "They're nice, but I don't know if they're really 'me' per se."

"Oh!" Krista starts. "That's fine! You can take them out whenever, but if you want wavy hair then keep them in for a few hours and then undo them! Good if you do it all night while you sleep and undo them after you wake up too."

"Okay, I'll keep that in mind." Elora says, even if her doing so is unlikely.

All of a sudden, Krista's ears perk straight up and her eyes begin to shine like stars in the night sky. Her lips reach halfway to her ears on both sides of her face. Elora can only guess what's running through her mind, though she's unable to make a single guess that could be correct. As she keeps trying to reach the most likely conclusion, Krista goes back up to her side. Both of her hands rest upon the red faun's shoulders.

"I just remembered, I think there's one thing you can try to raise your confidence!" She leans closer to Elora's face. "Positivity!"

"What?" Elora responds as her ears drop down and her eyebrow raises.

"Positivity, as in naming the positive things about yourself that you like! Same with what you've done in the past, like your achievements! Sure, you wanna work on stuff you don't like, but you gotta take it one step at a time."

Elora opens her mouth, but pauses herself as she looks at herself in the mirror. That actually doesn't sound like a bad idea thinking about it. The only problem she can think of with that idea was exactly where to start, with accomplishments or positive qualities. Aside from that, she might actually be able to do it, even if it takes a while.

"We could start with, I dunno, maybe a recent achievement?"

Krista's smile grows wide, though Elora can see she's trying her best to be subtle when it's as clear as day. It was kinda adorable seeing her try. Regardless of that, it seems like Krista already picked out what she can start on first, not that it was a bad thing of course. Elora just didn't expect her to choose for her.

"Well, I suppose I am kinda proud of helping Spyro defeat Ripto and giving him some knowledge about the orbs."

"And?"

It takes Elora a second to respond. "And I guess if it wasn't for me, he might've not been able to get rid of Ripto? I mean I'm sure he could've done it without my help- Ow!"

She instantly puts her hand on her arm where Krista punched. She's sure it wasn't intentional for it to be _that_ hard, but despite the intentions the area on her arm starts hurting. Her ears lower down as a result.

"You're supposed to praise yourself, not be all like 'but I probably didn't do as much for this to happen as I think I did'- No, show you're proud of yourself!" Krista pumps her fists as she tries to encourage her.

Elora can only half-heartedly chuckle. "I don't think you're supposed to punch someone's arm, though."

Krista's head tilts slightly to the side as her eyebrows furrow. Her right ear twitches, only adding more to her expression. It's almost like she's a computer trying to compute what's being said, except there's no reasonable answer she's finding as her gaze lays on the floor. After a minute, she looks back up at Elora. Her eyebrows stay the same while her ears rise up high above her head.

"...I'm not? Then how come Lila always did that?" Krista whispers that question to herself as she lays her index finger right above her upper lip.

Yet despite her attempts, the red faun hears what she asks herself anyways. Elora's lips slightly part, but nothing slips from her mind to out of her mouth. It's times like this that make her wonder how they treated her before, wonder if she's just had enough of them overall aside from a couple days ago. It's something that plaques her mind, however no questions or thoughts in relation to it ever comes up.

Snapping her out of her train of thought, Krista grabs Elora's hands and tugs her. As she's pulling her along the blue faun kicks the door open and the two exit the house with the door closing behind them. Krista eventually turns around, holding only one of Elora's hands now instead of both. She pulls her to almost right out of the forest. Elora looks at her confused; Krista slightly moves her head as her eyes point towards a certain direction. The red faun looks that way, seeing kids from different worlds and places playing with one another. She hasn't seen that since she was little, much less getting along that well. Her face softens and the ends of her lips slightly curl up as she watches them smile and laugh.

The next thing she knows, Krista wraps her arm around Elora's waist. Elora looks back at her, who has the biggest smile on her face. She looks between the kids and Krista.

" _You_ helped with this!" Krista says, her voice laced with joy and enthusiasm. "If it wasn't for you helping Spyro, who knows how different this could be!"

That's certainly one way of putting it, but Elora knows that she _does_ have a point. Even if she feels she didn't do much, the smallest things can change everything despite what one would think, that she knows quite well. She runs through everything she can possibly think of in her head that could've been different and what could've been the same, aside from the first thought she had. It's not something that seems like one would think of to help another, but it's not like she can complain really.

"I suppose you're right." Elora finally replies.

"I am! You gotta compliment yourself more often!" Krista's smile grows wider as she's starting to bounce. "Ooh! What are some things you wanna do? We should make a list!"

Elora chuckles nervously. "Well, I'm not _that_ interested in skateboarding but I wouldn't mind trying it. We should slow down though- Whoa!"

Krista grabs her wrist and starts sprinting to the nearest skate park.

* * *

"Man, how do you keep getting better scores than me?"

"Easy, pussy cat," Spyro starts, "it's because _I'm_ so awesome."

"And I'm not?" Hunter smirks.

"Of course! ...But not as awesome as me."

Hunter playfully punches Spyro as the two laugh. They lay their skateboards down right where they found them before the two sit down on the bench. The dragon slouches, close to falling off the bench if the end of his feet weren't already touching the ground. On the other hand, Hunter stretches his arms and legs.

"You know what would be nice?"

Spyro looks in Hunter's direction. "What? A rematch?"

"I was gonna say lunch, but that too."

"Aww, and we just got here too!"

Spyro and Hunter look at each other before looking ahead of them. Spyro sits up correctly as they see Krista and Elora coming their way, with the former still holding the latter's wrist. Upon seeing the two fauns, Hunter looks between them and Spyro as his facial expression becomes one of confusion. He gets up and walks towards Elora.

"Elora? What are you doin' here?"

Krista lets go of Elora and she takes a few steps back, watching her footing as she does so. Elora looks at her briefly before placing her full attention on Hunter.

"Well, uh, I guess I'm trying out skateboarding." She says. "Mainly because Krista already dragged me all the way out here."

"I thought maybe trying something new would help?" Krista says as she shrugs.

Hunter looks at Spyro and they look at him back. The dragon shrugs and nods, silently giving him what they think. His eyebrows don't relax, but Hunter nods back before looking back at Elora.

"That's actually not a bad idea, not that I thought I'd ever hear her say that though." Hunter starts. "Uh here, lemme grab my skateboard and help you out."

He runs to grab his board, but before he can, Elora grabs it and she takes a helmet in the process. She straps the helmet on nice and firm.

"It can't be _that_ hard right?" Elora puts her hoof on the board. "It's just like riding a bike right?"

Hunter grabs another skateboard. "Elora, it's not that- _and_ she's gone."

"Well, she's fucked." Spyro sips his milkshake.

" _When_ did you get that?" Hunter asks them before shaking his head. "Nevermind."

He gets on the skateboard immediately and goes after her. Hunter is able to catch up to speed with her, who managed to make a few turns. The cheetah quietly sighs in relief. Krista puts on roller skates and goes after them as well. Spyro, on the other hand, watches them from where he's at. Hunter looks ahead then at Elora.

"Hey, uh, you might wanna slow down some."

She smirks. "Why, am I going too fast?"

"That and…" He points ahead.

Elora looks in front of her, seeing a steep ramp in front of her. Her ears drop and her smirk fades. She tries to slow down and turn around, but it fails as she falls down to the bottom of the ramp face first into the concrete. The skateboard itself keeps rolling. She lets out an audible 'ow' as she puts one of her hands up to her face. The skateboard she had goes up into the air, but it soon falls back down and one end comes close to her face, almost bouncing as soon as it hits the ground. It stops moving and lands onto its side. Hunter and Krista get down there while Spyro instantly runs at the sound of the skateboard hitting the ground.

Hunter grabs Elora's arm and helps her get up. Krista grabs the vacant skateboard, putting it elsewhere and away from the warm-colored faun. Despite the pain, Elora removes her hand from her mouth. Her eyes widen as she looks at her hand. Blood's all over her palm and she feels some of it going from her mouth and down her lower lip. In an instant, she turns her head and spits to her side. Her blood spitting causes Hunter to jump back, letting go of her in the process.

"Are you okay, Elora?" Krista asks.

"Ah think sho," Elora replies before spitting more blood out of her mouth.

She only does that twice, seeing there's no point in spitting it all out at once. Spyro finally arrives and sees the blood. They rush down to her.

"Are you alright?! What happened?"

"Ah didn' slow down an' ah didn' see the ramp un'il i' was too late."

"You should've let Hunter help, you dummy!" Krista replies.

"Pha' ah know now." Elora says. "Ah'm very confiden pha' ah ain' doin this again fo' awhile."

Hunter puts one of his fingers on her face, gently pulling upwards to see her teeth. She opens her mouth wide enough. More blood drips out of her mouth, running down her chin. From what he sees, nothing's missing.

"Aside from the blood, she seems to be good." He reports. "Either way, _Krista_ and I are gonna get a first aid kit just in case."

Krista's face remains the same and follows Hunter when he walks away. Spyro stays by Elora as she sits down on the ground. They sigh before looking at her.

"Next time, after your mouth gets better, I'm gonna take over."

Elora nods in acknowledgement.

* * *

She sits there on her bed as she watches Krista pace back and forth.

Krista stares at the purple and yellow tarot cards in her hands as she paces. Elora's eyes follow her, mainly resting upon the sight of the blue faun's tense face. Ever since the two got back to Elora's house, all Krista has been doing was this, with neither of them saying a single word to each other. If anything, Elora thought she would've said something by now. Not that she'd force her to speak, though. It feels like it's been almost an hour just watching her go back and forth in the room.

Her ears perk up when Krista sighs and puts her cards together into a small block of tarot cards before resting them into their box that has the same design as the back of the cards. Krista falls onto her knees, not lifting up or moving her head in the process. As Krista's ears go back, Elora hears the pack of cards slide onto the wooden floor.

Krista sighs. "Sorry about earlier. That wasn't a great idea, huh?" When she says that, her head moves just slightly towards Elora's direction and her irises dart towards her.

"Krista, you don't have to apologize, it's okay." Elora reassures. "Plus, it was… My fault I ended up like this." Elora laughs as she points at her mouth. "I'm surprised my nose didn't bleed too. I _did_ hit my face pretty hard there."

Krista's face remains the same. No smile, no laughter, nothing on her face changed. Elora's laughing dies down, seeing no reaction on her face. She gets off the bed and bends down to Krista's level, putting her hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, I really appreciate you trying to help." Elora says.

Krista finally looks at her directly. "Really?"

"Really." She repeats. "Let's just try to do things one at a time, okay?"

The blue faun takes a moment before nodding. She smiles, grabs her card pack from the floor, then stands back up. She helps Elora stand up in case she falls back as she gets up. After helping her, Krista puts the card pack away. When Krista looks back at Elora, the latter is stuffing tons of tissues into the chest area of her dress. Elora looks up and stops what she's doing as the two stare at one another.

With the speed of a glacier, Elora goes to grab another tissue. Krista throws her arm up against Elora's chest without hurting her, causing her to yelp from how unexpected that was and all of the tissue to come flying out. Just as Krista's about to open her mouth, Elora starts laughing which she notices that it catches the blue faun off guard. After a few seconds Krista begins to laugh as well, assuming she's realizing what Elora was trying to do there.

"That's so dumb!"

"I know!" Elora snorts. "But it worked!"

Krista keeps laughing until she coughs. When she stops coughing, she clears her throat. She looks around the room.

"When's the last time you properly cleaned the place?"

At first, Elora's confident she can answer, but the question truly sinks in as she takes a minute to think about it, resting her hand on her chin. In all actuality, she doesn't know either, even asking herself that question. She knows it wasn't anytime recent that she did something about the paint job and how the place looked, yet it wasn't like she didn't sweep and dusted the place when Hunter wasn't doing it. Elora looks at the room; she did have to admit the floors could look nicer and the old paint could be taken off and have a new coat on with possibly a different color than the one that was there now.

Her mom would've had a new look to the place to spice things up at least every once in a while, once remembering she did that a year or two before they met Hunter, and remembered how she mentioned wanting to do that again before she passed away. How her mom wanted to do it though, Elora couldn't remember, but now she would be able to redecorate how she'd want to.

"Regardless, we're gonna do this as if Kulap was here!" Krista interrupts her train of thought.

Elora winces and the entirety of her body tenses up as her ears fall to the back at the mere mention of her mom's name. It takes Krista a moment before realizing why Elora is in that state and gasps.

"Oh my stars, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to-"

"No no, it's fine!" Elora quickly responds. "I'm just… Not used to hearing that quite yet."

Krista slightly opens her mouth, only to close it seconds later and nod in sympathy. She puts her hand in Elora's, causing Elora to automatically relax.

"We're here if you wanna talk about it."

Elora smiles. "Thanks. We should get to redecorating; it's been a while since this place had something new."

Krista returns the smile before shooting her eyes across the room. She turns her head a few times as her eyes are darting around. In the meantime, the second half of her tail wags like a happy little pet following their owner. Even if it's not currently shown on Krista's face, Elora could tell she was excited to do this. Her heart melts at the sight; it's nice to see her get like this in the short amount of time they became friends. All of a sudden, Krista slams her closed hand onto her open one before looking at Elora.

"I know _exactly_ how we could do this! I just need to get the paints!" She exclaims. "I'll be right back, okay?"

Elora nods and Krista runs out. As she leaves, Hunter comes inside as he stays out of Krista's way. He crosses his arms and smirks, looking in Elora's direction.

"What's she planning on doing this time?" He asks in a light-hearted tone

"Nothing that I can get hurt with this time, unless she's being clumsy." She jokingly answers. "Not that I would put it against her. She just wants to be helpful and it's sweet."

Hunter chuckles. "I know, but a bro gotta watch out for his little sister, y'know?"

Elora rolls her eyes. "I'm not _that_ little, ya dork. I can take care of myself."

"Says the girl who forgets to eat sometimes."

"Key word being 'sometimes'! Try reading a book every once in a while, you might get sucked into it and I'm sure you'll see why."

"I wanna be able to go home, thanks."

They start laughing at the same time. After a minute, Elora stops laughing and clears her throat.

"So how does… How does redecorating the place sound?"

Hunter's eyes shoot wide open and his ears perk up. He looks around him, as if wondering if she means _this_ place, _this_ house. He looks back at her.

"You mean… Without Mom?"

She nods. "I… Need to move on, and the house doesn't look _that_ nice anymore, so…"

Hunter eventually nods. Elora feels her face turn a reddish color. Before she knows it, Hunter pulls her into a hug.

She firmly hugs him back.

* * *

Krista skips and hums, keeping the paint cans, brushes, and other materials steady so nothing would escape her.

She lays her chin on the brushes that lay on top of one of the paint cans as her hooves go through the leaves under her. Resting upon her face was a big ole smile, one that couldn't be blown away by almost anything. Seeing a bird from up above, she twirls as her eyes follow it fly by. After that she faces ahead once again to keep her focus on the road. Despite that, however, she ends up tripping and the two cans of paint she held end up flying ahead along with the packaged brushes. Her body lands on the leaf-covered ground. Krista immediately lifts her head up with her heart beating fast. She sighs in relief seeing the cans and the brushes were okay, thankful that they weren't damaged in some way.

She gets up, but before she can get to the paints and brushes, she feels her arm being grabbed from behind. Not knowing who it is, she instantly pulls away and Krista turns around as she backs up. Her heart sinks down to her stomach as it races faster than ever. Her eyes dart between the three fauns she's come to know over the years.

Lila, Spinner, and Sheila.

Krista clenches her fists and tries not to show how she's feeling on the inside. Looking at them makes her question why they're here, what they're here for. Spinner walks up to her with a smirk on her face, as if she's planning something mischievous.

"Why if it isn't Krista, the freak lover." Spinner says.

"What are you guys here for?" Krista questions. "I just want to get my paints and my brushes and go help Elora redecorate her home."

Lila snorts. "Ha! Like _your_ help would be appreciated by _her_. I'm surprised she even _has_ a home still."

"Yeah, I thought she'd be homeless with her mother gone." Sheila adds.

Krista's ears drop down as her eyebrows furrow. "Why do you guys hate her anyways? She can't help being intersex."

Krista turns around and grabs what she dropped. In the middle of doing so, one of the girls grabs her tail and yanks on it. As an instinct, Krista turns around with her leg up and kicks Spinner down, resting her hoof upon her chest. Spinner's face is drained of any color and her eyes are widened. It hurts Krista seeing her so frightened, but it won't stop her from standing up to them.

"You _know_ I hate being grabbed by my tail." She says, her voice cracking as she says so. Krista looks at the other two. "And you guys would just abandon someone at a drop of a hat if they don't agree with you and you wanna know what? I hate that."

She removes her hoof off of Spinner, who lets out a breath and sighs in relief. Krista successfully picks everything up without interruption. She walks off but then she looks back at them.

"Oh, and by the way? Don't speak to me nor my friends _ever_ again unless you guys decide to change your attitudes." Krista states.

She looks ahead before she can see their expressions. Krista smiles to herself, just liking to think that their jaws are dropping and wanting to say or do something about what she said but they're unable to. Her tail swings left and right to reflect her current emotions.

Soon after that, she returns to the house and, when she gets inside, places the cans of paint down and rests the paint brushes on them so anyone could take whatever. Krista will have to bring more stuff, but for the time being this should be good. It'll take a few days for the whole house to like how Elora would want it to look, but it'll be worth it to see their work pay off.

All three of them take a can of paint to their respective areas and they start getting to work.

* * *

After a couple days full of work, Elora sits down on her bed.

Everything looks so much better with the walls having a new color and carpets being laid down on the wooden floors, and old paint being replaced with new paint. If her mom was around to see this now, Elora thinks she'd be proud of her. In fact, she's proud of herself being able to make the place feel brand new again, with some help of course. She even went inside her mom's old room and redecorated it too, putting in another bed in there as well in case someone wanted to sleep over and Hunter didn't feel like sleeping with her for the night. Redoing her room was actually Hunter's idea, thinking it would be good for the both of them.

She chuckles; it's amazing how she's come this far, and she has everyone to thank for that. The idea of getting close to others still freaks her out, but she's trying what she can and that's what matters. Elora looks over to Krista and Hunter, who're sleeping close to each other. She can't help but smile at them. They got tired so they were going to take a break, but they ended up being there for the past hour or so which caused Elora to be the only one doing the rest of the work. Not that she minds though, it's nice doing a bit of work by herself.

Thinking of which, she almost forgot to put up that picture onto her end table. She opens the drawer and pulls out a framed picture of her, her mom, and Hunter, all back when they were young kids hanging out with their mom. Elora remembers how it took a few attempts to actually get a good picture from something covering the lens to something getting in the way of the picture. Oh how the Professor got so annoyed at that, even her mom couldn't help but laugh at how they were going. She wasn't even upset with how it was going, she was just happy she was with her and Hunter like she always was. Elora looks out the window in front of her, out into the orange sunset sky. She wonders if her mom's watching her from up there and what she's thinking about if she is up there.

Elora then sets the picture down, having it face towards the bed, that way she can look at it when she wakes up and she doesn't have to do much for the first few minutes just to look at the picture. Her eyes then shift up to the small mirror above the end table. Krista put that there earlier so Elora could look at herself in the mirror so she didn't have to keep going from room to room for that. One thing she has to admit about Krista is that she's really thoughtful, and it's very sweet. She appreciates what she's been doing that week. She smiles at her reflection.

Not only is she appreciating and proud of them all, she's becoming more proud of the girl in the mirror.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: oh hey lemme do a confidence arc for Elora!  
> Also me: uh shit wait how does one do that-  
> Aka I tried but idk if I succeeded or not so uhhh-


	9. Perfectly Perfect to Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AKA me trying to make a chapter mostly of one thing, but it got long and it went in another direction so here we are. AKA Electric Bongaloo, Spyro and some of his family? Fucking dumbasses but we love them regardless

"Spyro, this is a bad idea."

"What could be so bad about it?" They smirk as they look at Hunter. "Besides, I'm _sure_ this will work!"

Hunter only sighs in response. "Okay, but I warned you."

He quietly goes inside the house, slowly opening and closing the door. Spyro clears his throat before putting his right hind leg onto a stone. He cracks all of his digits on his hands. Putting his head close to the guitar, he gently glides his claws through the guitar strings. They tune it a little on one of the strings before playing it again. Once he's satisfied with the sound, he smiles in a cocky manner as he takes a deep breath.

" _I think you're a superstar, yeah you are, why don't you know? Yeah you're so pretty that it hurts!_ "

An apple comes flying out of the window and hits Spyro right between his eyes. He falls backwards, still holding the guitar as his sunglasses fly off.

"Spyro, can you _please_ shut the _hell_ up? It's five in the morning, it's too early for this!" Elora yells out.

"So _that's_ why Hunter was telling me not to do this…"

* * *

Spyro holds a small ice pack up to his forehead close to where the apple hit.

It has been a few hours, but the area still hurt like a bitch. Elora walks beside him with her arms crossed and a cheeky smirk on her face. She takes a bite out of an apple while holding the one she threw at Spyro in her other hand. Spyro looks up at Elora.

"You know, if you didn't sing at five in the morning you wouldn't have to put that ice pack up to your forehead." Elora remarks.

"Sorry I'm over here trying to help you with your confidence." Spyro playfully retorts as he sticks his tongue out.

Elora chuckles. "And you think a song like _that_ would help?"

"It was worth a shot."

With the same smile on her face, she rolls her eyes. She takes another bite.

"And may I ask what's next from the oh mighty Mister Confidence?"

"Fake it 'till ya make it, baby!" It only took a moment for Elora to start laughing, causing Spyro to stop and look back at her. "What? I'm actually kinda serious."

Elora just puts a stop to her laughter. "...Wait what?"

"What, you think I was _born_ a suave dragon? Ha, I wish!" Spyro exclaims as his wings spread out. "Just between you and me, Elora, even _I_ needed help with confidence at one point. Mainly when I was younger and…"

Spyro gasps as a huge smile going from horn to horn crawls up on their face. He glees with excitement and his tail wags back and forth. Elora only looks at them in confusion. Spyro throws the ice pack away and gets close to her.

"I haven't introduced you to the Artisans yet, have I?"

Elora shakes her head. She swears that his smile only grows wider and wider with each passing second.

"Oh, I've _got_ to bring you there! We can get two birds with one stone!" They say excitedly.

It's like he's a child going into a candy store and, at least for Elora, it's really cute to see the sparkles in his eyes. Looking at their wide smile makes her smile. She's been wondering about the other dragons for a while now, especially since she recalls Spyro mentioning Nestor, so this is a good opportunity for them both.

"Well, let's go then." She gives him the other, unbitten apple. "You might wanna eat a little while we're going there."

"Of course," he takes the apple, "you shall go first ma'am."

"Nah, you should go first because I'm gonna get there before you do."

"Oh, bring it on!"

They run ahead and Elora runs as well, catching up to the dragon in front of her.

* * *

The two catch their breath, mainly Elora.

Once she catches her breath, she looks around. Her mouth opens just slightly seeing the sights in front and around her. The grass is greener than Summer Forest's grass, there aren't as many trees around the area aside from far off into the distance like if it's part of a town, there's even a little hedge maze by both a doorway and an area with a waterfall. Looking behind her, Elora sees a castle-like building with a door big enough for a full-grown dragon to go through. She walks up to it and places her hand onto the door. It was made of wood, yet the surface felt smooth where one wouldn't be able to get a splinter. Unlike the base of the door, the rest was made of gold.

"I see you like the outside of my house." Spyro says as he leans up against the door.

Elora looks between him and the building. She steps back to have more of it into view while still looking back and forth between them. She points at the castle.

" _That_ is your house?"

Spyro shrugs. "Yeah pretty much. Some of the other dragons sleep here too." He replies. "Well, mainly me, Nestor, and Argus. Lindar only comes in every other day."

"Huh," Elora puts her chin on her closed hand. "Y'know, I thought it'd be more something like a cave with gems as beds."

"Eh, some of the dragons sleep in that. I never liked how that felt up against my body, so I decided I'd go for a bed instead." Spyro answers. "Plus, I get neck pain the morning afterwards so they thought I shouldn't sleep on that for the time being."

Elora turns around, running her eyes everywhere. "Speaking of, where are they? I don't see them anywhere."

Sparx immediately points to the direction of one of the portals, causing Elora to jump back some. Spyro looks in that direction as Sparx returns to their side.

"Sorry, I kinda forgot you were there, Sparx." Elora says.

Sparx only rolls his eyes as he's saying something in a mocking manner; Spyro laughs in response.

"Don't mind him, he's usually quiet like that. Even _I_ sometimes forget he's around me so don't worry about that." They wink as they point to Sparx, who just sticks his tongue out at him. "Anyways, I guess they're in Town Square."

"You can tell just from that?" Elora raises her eyebrow.

"Yeah, Sparx always points in the direction of something or someone when needed, like for example gems." They explain. "All dragonflies do that."

"Huh. You know, that actually somewhat explains all of the gems you have there." She replies as she points at the window with her thumb, her eyes quickly shifting to the sparkling gems inside and then back at Spyro.

"What, you want a dragonfly to help you with that?" He playfully asks.

"Maybe, but then there'd be a competition on our hands."

"As if there ain't one already!" Spyro runs off. "Last one to Town Square is a rotten Ripto!"

Before she has a chance of responding, Spyro jumps and glides in the direction of the portal as Sparx flies to him. As if it was on instinct, she runs as fast as she can to the portal. She jumps off the circular platform that lies in the middle and lands on her hooves. Somehow she manages to catch up to Spyro close to the portal to Town Square. Elora reaches out to the portal, however she trips right as she's about to enter. On the other side, she lands on the grass with her arms up against her chest. Spyro comes out just fine, looking at him. She gets up and leans up against the nearest wall.

Elora closes her eyes as she catches her breath. The world feels like it's spinning all around her and she feels lightheaded; if she was any more short of breath, she might've collapsed right then and there. She takes slow, deep breaths as she's whispering 'just keep breathing' to herself. Her ears perk up, hearing Spyro's feet glide through the grass. Once he stops walking, she puts up her shaky hand in case he decides to put his arm out for any reason. Instead of him reaching out like she expected, he gently takes it and holds it. Elora opens her eyes, seeing them in front of her as their tail's running back and forth. They blink with a clear look of everlasting worry ingrained on their face that Elora can see.

"Are you okay? You just… Backed up there."

"Yeah, I'm fine," Elora uses his holding as help getting up from the ground. "I just can't work myself out as much as anyone else can."

Spyro frowns. "If this happens again, please let me know right away."

Elora slightly nods before realizing what's hitting her nose; she sniffs the air with her nose twitching and moving. Something's being grilled, but she's unsure about exactly what's being made. However, she can tell where it's coming from, somewhere behind Spyro. The dragon looks behind himself then back at Elora.

"Oh, yeah they're supposed to be having a barbeque today." Spyro says, almost like he's telling himself that.

Then Spyro starts walking and Elora follows. Around the corner, Elora stops and the first thing to catch her eyes are all of the dragons there. She counts each of them, counting up to sixteen dragons, excluding Spyro. They were all three times his size, if not four. Unlike Spyro, they all stand and walk on two legs. All around the dragons were food, each of varying types. There were even some desserts for after the main meal from what she could notice. One of the dragons is playing what she presumes to be a mandolin. The way he plays it is soft and calming to the ears, and he seems to be enjoying himself.

She walks forward, looking at everything and everyone closely. A smile creeps up her face as her eyes light up like a small kid on a holiday. She never thought she'd see the day she'd meet a whole clan of dragons, let alone more than one. Elora stops walking before she bumps into anybody as she's looking around in awe. Before she knows it, Spyro grabs her arm, snapping her out of her train of thought and looks at Spyro. She retracts her arm immediately and has it close to her chest, almost as if instinct was taking over.

"Oh, uh, sorry Elora." Spyro apologizes as they smile sheepishly.

"No, it's fine," she puts her arm close to Spyro, "force of habit."

"So _this_ is Elora, huh?" The dragon in front of the two says. He puts his hand out. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Nestor!"

"He… Talked about me?" Elora raises her eyebrow as she shakes his hand.

"Of course!" Nestor exclaims. "It feels like you're the only thing he talks about whenever he opens his mouth!"

"What about Hunter?"

"They talk about him, but not as much as he does with you." Nestor replies.

He looks at Spyro then chuckles. Elora looks at them and they're looking away from both Nestor and Elora as their cheeks turn a pinkish color.

"Aww, am I embarrassing you in front of your girlfriend?" He teases.

Spyro looks at Elora and then the two look at Nestor. "We're not a couple!" Both of them say in unison.

That only causes Nestor to laugh. A blue dragon shows himself from behind Nestor, having a big smile on his face.

"Oooh, are we talking about Spyro's love life? I've _got_ to hear this!"

Spyro hides himself in their wings. "Not you too, Lindar…!"

"How many times do I have to tell you _not_ to stand behind me?" Nestor glares at Lindar, who only laughs in response.

"Haha, sorry." He steps away. "Anyways, who's the lucky person to be dating our little Spyro?"

"Lindar why are you fucking doing this to me too!"

Spyro hides his tail between his legs and tries to cover himself more. If he hides himself anymore, he'll become a ball. Nestor looks at Lindar once again, this time with his arms crossed.

"...You kept swearing in front of him even when I told you to not do that, didn't you?"

"What? Swearin' ain't gonna hurt the damn kid." Lindar calmly answers. "I mean, look at them! They're just fine aside from becoming a little fuckin' ball, ain't that right Spyro?"

Spyro doesn't reply aside from a combination of a whine and a groan. Elora just stands there, watching this whole thing go down like she's not even here. That explains at least one thing though.

Nestor just sighs. " _This_ is Lindar, clock's our finest mechanic but he usually just makes clocks."

"And what's fucking wrong with clocks and watches? They're fuckin' awesome and you can see what time it is _right_ on your damn wrist no matter where you are!" Clock says, showing off one of the clocks they created. "Or one on your tail, or your waist, or anywhere you want! Just don't put it in your mouth ma'am," he leans in, "trust me, it doesn't end so well."

Elora's ears go down and back. "Uhh, I certainly won't. How do you…?"

Spyro pops his head out. "Lindar and Gavin had a competition on who could eat a watch in its entirety! They had stomach aches for a couple weeks after they both ate two watches, but _damn_ man it was so awesome to watch!"

* * *

" _Eat it, eat it, eat it!" Spyro chanted._

_Lindar ate one watch, swallowed it, and did the same to another watch. Gavin, on the other hand, laughed as he grabbed two watches._

" _I eat watches_ _ **for breakfast**_ _! I can do two in no time!" He said._ " _Hey! Those are_ _ **my**_ _fuckin' jokes!" Clock angrily exclaimed._

_Gavin did just as he said by throwing the two watches in his mouth. He chewed and crunched them into little pieces before swallowing them. Lindar quickly snatched five more and held them up as his eyebrows furrowed big time._

" _But can you do_ _ **five**_ _clocks at once, motherfucker?!"_ " _Bring it on!"_

_Before either had a chance to go for another one, both of their stomachs growled furiously like a beast. Spyro looked back and forth between the two as he let out a long 'uh' and put his hands down. Lindar put their hands on clocks stomach, ignoring the fact he was holding multiple clocks in his hands and they fell to the floor. Gavin gave in as well, almost dropping to his knees._

" _Shit, I need… I need to go!"_ " _Agreed! And- And I need some coffee while I'm at it!" Gavin grunted as he tried to go._

* * *

" _That_ was awesome?" Elora crosses her arms as her eyebrow raises up.

"Hey, at least I learned what happens when you eat clocks!" Spyro grins. "And if this makes you happy, I never ate a watch or a clock in my whole life!"

"Not that you should eat clocks in the first place," Nestor says in disappointment.

"Definitely. Just because you can doesn't mean you should." Elora agrees.

Nestor's eyes widen as he looks back and forth between Spyro and Elora. It ends on him looking at Spyro.

"You sure you're not dating her?"

" _Nestor!_ "

"Okay sorry, sorry," he says before he clears his throat, "I'm sure you didn't bring your friend here just for us to tease you."

"I _definitely_ did not bring her here for that." Spyro confirms before they look at Lindar with a smile. "I was wondering if you'd be able to help Elora with her confidence?"

"Wait hold up, _this_ guy?" Spyro nods. " _This_ guy is where you got _your_ confidence from?" They nod again. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Nope, he ain't!" Lindar responds.

"I thought it would be Nestor!" Elora exclaims as she has her arms out wide open in Nestor's direction. "I mean, he seems like he has some confidence!"

"Nah, I wish I was the one to do that." Nestor says.

Elora looks at Spyro, who's pointing towards Lindar, who's pointing towards clockself. She looks back at Nestor, who's just standing there, as if he's waiting patiently for Elora to make a decision. The faun looks around them, seeing everyone everywhere. Looking at everyone, her heart starts pumping a little faster and it feels like a pit is forming in her stomach. After a moment, she knows exactly what she's gonna do.

"I'm gonna get mine from Nestor, and I wanna get outta here." She says, pointing to the way they came from. "It's not good for my anxiety and it feels like it's… Getting tighter in here, and we're not even in a room. I don't like that."

"Okay, let's get you out of here then." Nestor gently takes Elora's hand.

"Have fun with Nestor." Spyro says. "You know where to find me!"

Nestor guides Elora out of Town Square and back into the main area. Part of the way there, Elora holds onto Nestor's arm. The moment she's away from the crowded area, she feels a lot better, and her holding onto Nestor helps a ton. She doesn't know what it is about him, he just radiates the feeling of safety and calmness. It's like her anxiety's just melting away, and it didn't feel like she's been holding onto him for that long either.

Before she knows it, they're right back to where Spyro and Elora first started. Nestor then lets go of Elora's hand, which in return she stops holding onto him. He walks up to the doors and pulls them open. Afterwards, he steps aside so Elora can go inside first; she walks in and looks all around her. It looks a lot bigger on the inside than she originally thought it would be. Looking to the right, she sees the same bed from before and the gems that rest beside it. Now that she's inside, Elora can get a better look at the bed.

She walks closer to that side of the room. The blanket was purple, almost the same kind of purple as his scales, while the bedsheets were as white as snow. The pillow was the same colors as his sunglasses, except unlike those, the blue and green reside on the same side with the blue colors being on the top half while the green is on the bottom half. The same might be true for the back side, but she doesn't want to touch anything of Spyro's purely out of respect. Close to the bed, she looks at the gems. There's more than she thought there was, even a few bags here and there. It'll take forever to count them all one by one, but if she has to guess, it's probably everything from when Spyro went to Avalar and the rest has to be from either prior or between the time he first went there and when he came back.

The sound of walking on stairsteps makes her ears perk up. Elora looks in the direction of the footsteps and sees Nestor going upstairs. She speed walks up to him, slowing down once she gets by his side. When they get onto the second floor, she looks around the room. There's three doors, all on different sides of each other with one in front of her, one on the left, and one on the right. She takes a guess that they're bedrooms. On one of the sides of the bedrooms, there's a couple of couches, a chair, and a TV on a stand, where Nestor walks to but he doesn't take a seat.

After a few seconds of examining the room, she goes to sit down on the little chair. Her body slightly sinks into it like if she's sitting on a bean bag, but it's not to where she'll have a problem getting off the chair if she needs to get up. If she ever _does_ get up anyways, she doesn't mind staying here for a while, maybe a day or five.

"Do you want anything to drink, Elora?" Nestor offers.

She looks at him. "Oh uh, some water if that doesn't trouble you."

"Of course not."

He walks away from that area of the room. He's not heading towards the stairs, as Elora notices, so she watches him and he's going towards the opposite side of the room. Apparently she missed a door all the way to the right of the room when entering, which she's unsure of how she didn't see that when she came in and mentally smacks herself on the forehead. All of a sudden, she realizes how tight her wristbands feel on her. Elora adjusts them, making them looser; she hates how her wrists get swollen out of nowhere, especially on days when she shouldn't have these problems.

"Here's your water."

Elora jumps, causing her to accidentally untie one of her wristbands and it falls to the bottom of the bean bag. She quickly grabs it and puts it back on as fast as she can. Afterwards she takes the cup from him.

"Sorry about that, thank you." She smiles before she drinks some of the water.

"You're fine." Nestor reassures. "Are your hands okay?"

"Huh?" Her eyes then widen, forgetting about how swollen her wrists are for a moment. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine. This isn't quite abnormal for me."

Elora drinks a little more. Nestor goes to sit down on the couch next to her. For a few moments, there's nothing but silence between the two and shared glances every now and again. She doesn't even know what to say to break the quietness of the room. Looking at her cup, she already has a little left rather than halfway or close to full. Elora might as well drink the rest of it if that's the case.

"So uh… Do you have any family?"

That question almost makes her spit out the water. She only swallows it and coughs instead, taken off-guard by that question. Afterwards, she stares at him.

"Sorry," Nestor apologizes, "I thought I'd start off with that. I wanted to know you better personally so..."

"No, no, you're fine." Elora only coughs one more time before clearing her throat. "I just didn't expect it. I… I just have Hunter now."

"Hunter, huh? What about your parents? ...If you don't mind me asking, of course." He says. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

Elora's ears droop as she smiles, appreciating what he said. However, it disappears as soon as it comes.

"My mom… Died when I was ten. I don't know if I even _have_ another parent, to be frank, so I just have my brother. He annoys me sometimes, he drives me crazy where I swear I sometimes don't know why Mom took him in, but I appreciate having him in my life, you know?"

Nestor nods. "You're always welcomed here, same with Hunter. You can always ask anything of us at any time, no questions asked."

"Thank you." Elora says. "You remind me of her, a lot."

"Really now?"

"Yeah. I mean, you were willing to take in a kid with no family of his own, you're kind, but I don't think you're _as_ clumsy as Mom was though." She remembers a particular moment when she was alive, causing her to laugh. "Man, paint got _everywhere_ that day, if I didn't know any better I'd say she was trying to paint the town red but instead of the town, the walls and the floors were red and I was _covered_ in it. I remember it like it was yesterday."

Nestor laughs. "Jeez, how many cans was she carrying?"

"Just two," she puts two fingers up, "but one of them broke open when she tripped and that was such a disaster we had to hold off on painting until I was cleaned and we got the paint off the floor. We'd always laugh about stuff like that happening afterwards."

"Reminds me of something Spyro did when he was younger. Oh!" He quickly gets up, grabs something, then sits back down. "Since we're talking about it, I've _got_ to show you some pictures of them."

He flips through the pages as Elora gets up and sits down next to him, trying to take a good look at the pages he's flipping through. From what she can tell, a majority of them are capturing moments the dragons had together, but nothing with Spyro in them yet.

Nestor slows down, allowing her to see the pictures in more detail. They still don't have Spyro yet, but a few of them show an egg that went from a light pink at the top to an amethyst purple at the bottom. It had patterns of what dragon eggs usually looked like in the books she read, but they were a deep, rich purple unlike the rest of the egg. Since he's slowing down, she wonders if that's the egg Spyro hatched from. Before she knows it, he stops completely on a page with some photos of a dragon after the egg hatched.

"Ah there we are. Look at him, wasn't he cute as a baby?" Nestor says as he holds up the picture for her to see, having the biggest smile on his face like a parent does when showing off their kid. "I miss it when he was a little baby, he was the chubbiest little thing I've ever seen!"

She takes the photo album from his hands and looks at the pictures herself. Her eyes wander through the pictures, each taking place after the previous one. Getting through the pictures after the baby ages, she realizes something about the photos with Spyro in them, he looked much rounder and it looked like his horns were growing in a different direction. Spyro looked so different yet so much the same when he was younger, just smaller than he is now.

Elora lands on one of his birthday pictures; he had frosting all over his face with a huge chunk of the cake eaten, like if he blew out the candles and _then_ stuck his face in there instead of waiting for the picture to be taken. The writing on the cake was 'Happy Birthday'... Silma? Sulma? Solma? She's unable to make out exactly what the name was, with the second letter being gone, but she moves onto the next picture instead of wondering about it; it's personal to him, so she doesn't wish to remember it for his sake. There's not much in between that year and the next, guessing it's probably because of the prior, as the next picture is another birthday photo.

This time, however, Spyro was sitting there smiling for the picture instead of having his face full of cake like the last one. The cake, this time, read 'Happy Birthday Spyro' and he was looking much more like how he looked now but not entirely, although he was getting there. She flips to the next page and it's showing more pictures for that year unlike before. One shows Spyro lifting the sunglasses he had prior to meeting her up, smiling cockingly to the camera while some nonsense went on in the background. There were gems from downstairs present in the picture with Sparx holding one of them as he was waving to the camera. It's pretty cool to see stuff like this where she's smiling.

She shakes her head. Hold on a damn minute. Elora closes the album and looks up at Nestor.

"Wait aren't we supposed to be working on my confidence?"

"Right, right, sorry about that. I got sidetracked," he apologises as he takes the album from her.

"Aren't we supposed to be working on my confidence?"

"Right, right, sorry about that. I got sidetracked there," he says as he takes the album from her. "What I can suggest is try different advice for a little bit, one at a time, whether it'd be trying something new or changing up your routine, never everything at once."

"I've already tried something new and that didn't work."

"And what did you try?"

"...Skateboarding and I ended up with a bloody mouth."

Nestor responds with a sharp inhale through his teeth and his body stiffens, cringing from what she said.

"Maybe don't try that one." He tells her as he's still cringing.

She chuckles. "I'm definitely not trying that again."

His body relaxes after a few seconds. "What are things you usually do, stuff that you like?"

"Oh, normally I read, I explore around though there's not much for me to explore in Avalar anymore, I help people go where they wanna go, stuff like that." Elora answers.

"Hmm," he puts his hand on his chin, "have you thought about learning how to fight?"

Her ears perk up and she looks downwards. For as far as she can recall, she's never thought about fighting for any reason whatsoever. Albeit if she's able to fight, then she'd be able to help Spyro more next time if they have to take down another bad guy. It can also be useful if she ever needs to protect herself, that in of itself would be beneficial at the very least. She looks up at Nestor, feeling confident about this idea.

"I might try that actually." Elora answers. "Are you, by any chance, a carpenter?"

"I am. Why?"

"Would you be able to make a weapon for me?"

"Hmm, what do you have in mind?"

Elora smiles as she gets up. She goes and grabs a piece of paper and a pencil. She sits right back on the couch she was on before, placing the paper on her legs as she draws out what she has in mind. It's not perfect, as she draws it as quickly as she can to give a rough idea on what she's thinking of, but it's what'll do for the moment. Elora even writes out a few things on it, even if she knows it's not exactly necessary to do so. When she's done, she gives the piece of paper to Nestor. He looks at it thoroughly before looking back at Elora.

"I'll need some help from the other dragons, but it _can_ be done." He confirms. "I'll let you know when it's done. In the meantime, try out meditation and don't listen to Lindar's advice. Ninety percent of the time, it's not that useful and it _really_ doesn't work."

She chuckles. "Will do. Not that I'll listen to most of what he says anyways." She jokingly adds.

Nestor laughs a little with her. "Ya better treat Spyro right, ya hear?"

"Of course." Elora replies with a smile. "Mind if I borrow some books?"

"Not at all. Borrow whatever you like."

" _Nestor! Are you in there?_ "

Nestor and Elora poke their heads out the nearest window, seeing one of the dragon elders standing outside.

" _Come and help Spyro! They've done it_ _ **again**_ _!_ " He yells out.

Nestor sighs. "I'll be there in a minute, Argus."

"Wait, did _what_ again?" Elora raises her eyebrow.

"You'll see." Nestor answers, sounding like he's just tired.

He leaves the room and Elora only follows without saying another word. They head back to Town Square with Nestor taking his time getting there while Elora is speed walking to where Spyro's at. Near the fountain, everyone's surrounding Spyro, with everyone asking if he's okay, if he's in pain, and similar questions. Elora tries to peek into the circle and thankfully she's able to look past everyone to see Spyro. Her body tenses up and her eyes become wider.

Spyro's shoulder is more boxy, more square unlike before. His arm is lifted up, unmoving, not even a twitch or shake; it's completely staying still like a statue. Their other arm is still touching the ground, allowing them to stay standing. She doesn't know exactly what the problem is, but she doesn't like it. Her stomach drops like if she's been thrown off a cliff. Almost like if she doesn't have any control over herself, Elora gets close to Spyro and stays by their side.

"Spyro, are you alright? What happened? Why is your arm like that?"

"Oh, this? Nah it's nothing." Spyro's wings move as if they were his arms. "I just dislocated my shoulder, that's all."

"You _what_?"

"...And why did you do it this time?"

Elora looks behind her. The dragons move out of Nestor's way, who's having his arms crossed and just having that typical look of not being surprised but definitely disappointed. Spyro's expression doesn't change, as if they were expecting to see him.

"Tomas was feeling overwhelmed, nobody heard me say anything 'cause they were focused on him, so I dislocated my shoulder so I'd catch their attention." Spyro casually explains. "How else was I gonna do?"

" _Not_ dislocate your shoulder for who knows _how_ many times, seriously you shouldn't do that as much as you do," Nestor scolds, "and maybe, _just_ maybe, ask someone for help instead?"

Spyro shrugs with the one non-dislocated shoulder that he has with his wings imitating his motions. The sheepish look on his face matches his shrug on the situation. Nestor only sighs, putting his fingers up to between his eyes.

"Come on Spyro, let's go relocate it." Nestor says as he turns around. "Lindar, you mind carrying flames?"

Lindar simply picks Spyro up, giving the non-verbal affirmative. He then follows Nestor, same with Elora. They get to a spot where Spyro can lie down on his back at eye level and Lindar places Spyro down gently. Elora watches as Nestor grabs Spyro's wrist with both of his hands, keeping it straight and at their body level. He slightly moves their arm up and down as he slowly moves towards Spyro's head until their arm is at ninety degrees. Once Nestor gets their arm at that ninety degree angle, he rotates it in place for a short bit. He then moves it more towards Spyro's head, reaching only a one-hundred-and-twenty degree angle this time, while he's still slightly rotating their arm. After a moment or two Spyro moves his digits, allowing Nestor to know that it worked yet again.

Then Nestor puts his hand on Spyro's back and has him sit up. He takes Spyro's arm and bends it at the elbow area before keeping his arm close to his body. Nestor gets their arm into an arm sling, keeping it firm and confined in there. He then looks at Spyro right in his eyes.

"Don't do this again, do you understand?" Nestor firmly asks.

"Ehhh," Spyro looks away, "I can't promise that but I'll try."

"Please. Doing that about four, five times isn't good. Any more and I don't know how badly your body's going to be damaged there." He informs him. "Magic can't do everything, including something like this."

Spyro's eyebrows then lower at the ends. "...Okay." He gets off and gets back on all threes.

"Go hang out with Elora some, alright? And be careful."

"I will."

* * *

The ocean waves rush up to their feet before retreating back into the ocean.

Spyro stops and lays down, resting his back up against the ground behind him. Elora sits down next to him. Her eyes stick onto the sun as it slowly falls below the horizon. The ocean in front of her starts looking more green than blue as it runs back and forth. She lays back, feeling Spyro's wing on her back causing her to slightly jump out of not expecting it.

"Sorry today was so hectic." Spyro apologizes.

Elora rests her head on his shoulder. "Nah, it's fine. I wasn't too sure _what_ to expect today, honestly. Certainly not dislocating your damn arm, that's for sure."

"Hey, could you blame me?"

"...Yes."

"Okay fair enough."

She chuckles. Their wing wraps around her while their other wing rests upon the sand. Her breathing lines up with the ocean waves in front of them. Feeling relaxed, she closes her eyes and cuddles up next to Spyro. She smiles, even if it's not a big one. Elora opens her eyes briefly, seeing Spyro lifting up their sunglasses, revealing his purple eyes once more. If she could, she'd-

_Beep! Beep! Beep!_

Elora jumps before realizing what the sound was. Her ears lower and she sighs through her nose. She sits up properly and takes the communicator-phone-thing out of her pocket. Pressing the answer button, it shows Hunter on the screen.

"Hey!" Hunter greets. "Is everything going well over there?"

"Yeah we're fine."

"Hey, Hunt!" Spyro says, waving with his right hand.

"Hey Spyro!" He looks closer. "Wait, what happened to your arm, dude?"

"Mister Dumbass over here thought it'd be a good idea to dislocate his _shoulder_ to get everyone's attention." She explains as she looks at Spyro, who chuckles nervously. She looks back at Hunter. "Is everything going well with you and Krista?"

"Yeah! She's asleep right now, though." He answers. "Glad these phone-things work. So, uh, when are you guys coming back?"

"Eh, tomorrow morning. Love ya."

"Okay love you too. But, hey wait a-"

She turns it off and puts it back in her pocket. While she doesn't want to do that to Hunter, she wants a good moment of peace and quiet with Spyro, just one moment out of the day. Elora gets back into her comfortable position as she looks up at the sky, seeing the stars show themselves to everyone under them. After a while, her eyelids start to become heavy and she closes them as Spyro wraps his arm around Elora. She has a smile on her face.

Even if it's just for a night, it's nice being here.

**Author's Note:**

> That moment when a thing you blurt out gets you all the way to making a fanfic when you thought it was just gonna be a headcanon. But regardless I am pretty excited to do this! Already a good chunk into chapter two so that might come out soon so if you're enjoying this so far then keep an eye out for that!


End file.
